Northern Rhône 2021: full report and top-scoring wines

Northern Rhône 2021 overall vintage rating: 2.5/5

Consistently excellent white wines, but reds very mixed due to severe frost and a mild, rainy season. Some are weak and green, others very good in a fresh and structured style.

‘The style of 2021 is light, lean and fresh, with high acidity, low alcohol and strict tannins…but for many producers making red wines, 2021 will be a year best forgotten. For white wines, the opposite is true.’

Northern Rhône 2021 red wine of the vintage

M Chapoutier, L’Ermite, Hermitage

Northern Rhône 2021 white wine of the vintage

Stéphane Ogier, Les Vieilles Vignes de Jacques Vernay, Condrieu

If the southern Rhône had a tough year in 2021, the northern Rhône had it even worse. When talking to growers, one word that came up time and time again was ‘exhausting’. On paper, this was a disastrous vintage, but it was worth fighting for – some producers pulled excellent wines out of their hats. Not many, but some.

Like the southern Rhône, the north was hit by a brutal frost. Not just on the night of the 7 April, but the following night too. Vineyards in Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu in particular were severely damaged. But while the south enjoyed a fairly dry growing season, in the northern Rhône it was a different story. ‘After the frost,’ said Jean Gonon of Domaine Gonon, ‘it rained and rained and rained.’

Scroll down for Matt Walls’ top-scoring northern Rhône 2021 wines

Bunches were heavy with swollen, thin-skinned grapes. ‘The grapes remained fragile all year,’ said Gonon. Reports of oidium, mildew and black rot were widespread, if contained. There were also three hailstorms, including one during the night, which is as cruel as it is rare: growers were woken in the darkness by the clattering storm, but couldn’t survey the damage until the sun rose the following day.

If this wasn’t challenging enough, the summer saw lower than average temperatures. All this made for a late, slow growing season, and many growers struggled to ripen their grapes. François Villard said he has never seen such low levels of alcohol. Almost everybody chaptalized.

See all 400 Rhône 2021 tasting notes and scores

‘For people looking for big wines, it’s not the best vintage,’ said Matthieu Barret of Domaine du Coulet. Stylistically the wines have little in common with the recent run of powerful, concentrated years such as 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019. The style of 2021 is light, lean and fresh, with high acidity, low alcohol and strict tannins.

Those with the energy, resources and experience to fight the elements were often rewarded, however. ‘The year was complicated,’ says Jean-Paul Jamet of Domaine Jamet, ‘but the results were far better than we could have hoped.’

For many producers making red wines, however, 2021 will be a year best forgotten.

See also: Rhône 2021 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

See also – individual appellation analysis on:

Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu | St-Joseph | Cornas and St-Péray | Hermitage | Crozes-Hermitage

For white wines, the opposite is true. From Condrieu down to St-Péray, whites have bright acidity, fresh aromatics and quality is consistently high throughout the northern Rhône.

Though candid about the arduous challenges he faced, François Villard retained a glimmer of optimism. ‘We might have some good surprises in 10 years’ time,’ he said. And I think he’s right.

Rhône 2021 score tables:

All top Rhône 2021 score table

Top-scoring southern Rhône 2021 score table

Top-scoring northern Rhône 2021 score table

Top-scoring 2021 red wines

Top-scoring 2021 white wines

Top 10 northern Rhône producers

• Domaine A&E Verset
• Domaine Clape
• Domaine du Tunnel
• Domaine François Merlin
• Domaine Garon
• Domaine JL Chave
• Domaine JP Jamet
• Domaine Marc Sorrel
• Domaine Niero
• M Chapoutier

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Top-scoring northern Rhône 2021 wines:

The wines below all scored 95 points or above, and are listed white then red in score order.

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