Walls: Rhône reds lighten up

Château des Tours Côtes du Rhône Grande Réserve 2015 is one of the most memorable bottles I’ve drunk in the last 12 months.

It would have been bottled as a Vacqueyras where it was grown, but it had to be declassified to a lowly Côtes du Rhône.

Why? For one reason: the wine was deemed too pale.

Notes for lighter Rhône reds below

Is the colour of a wine important to you? I care more about how it smells, how it tastes and how it makes me feel.

And this wine made me feel elated. It would have been a credit to its appellation.

But all Southern Rhône AOCs state that their red wines must have a certain depth of colour.

If a producer’s wine isn’t dark enough, it won’t be granted the appellation – and declassifying their wines usually means having to drop their prices too.

Many winemakers are frustrated with this increasingly outdated regulation.

Fortunately, a change in the rules might be on the horizon – bringing with it an entirely new category of wine.

Dark arts

Each appellation has its own rules regarding depth of colour and wines are analysed using a spectrophotometer.

The cahier des charges (official production rules) for AOC Côtes du Rhône wines, for example, stipulates an optical density of 3.5; AOC Châteauneuf-du-Pape reds must be slightly darker, at least 4; for AOC Vacqueyras it’s 5; Lirac is 6.

Initially, this regulation was useful.

‘Originally, this colour intensity threshold was intended to prevent overly diluted wines from being released onto the market,’ says Damien Gilles, president of the Syndicat des Vignerons des Côtes du Rhône.

‘Given the climatic conditions of the time, it was a form of guarantee.’

Today, diluted or unripe reds are rare in the Southern Rhône – thanks in part to the heating climate – which is rendering these rules obsolete.

‘In the past, the darker it was, the more alcoholic it was, the better it was,’ says Jean-Etienne Alary of Domaine Alary in Cairanne.

Today’s tastes are more refined.

Turning to the light

A red wine that’s pale is not necessarily dilute.

There are certain practices in the vineyard and cellar that have strongly advantageous effects on the finished wine but also happen to reduce colour density.

Whole bunch vinification, for example, can add freshness and structure – but often results in a lighter colour.

Wines grown on sand can be beautifully elegant, but are rarely dark. In the right hands, carbonic maceration of Grenache can make lovely pale-coloured wines.

Amélie Barrot, president of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation regulation committee (ODG), lists three more factors that are resulting in ‘a natural decline in colour density in our red wines’.

Firstly, the increasing interest in lesser-known grape varieties with lighter pigmentation such as Cinsault, Vaccarèse and Terret Noir.

Secondly, a growing interest in blending white grapes into red wines, which can bring freshness and acidity.

And thirdly, ‘the narrowing gap between day and night temperatures in summer, which negatively affects anthocyanin concentration in grapes, and thus colour intensity in wines,’ she says.

Stuck with Syrah

One, perhaps unintended, effect of the rules around colour density in the Southern Rhône has been the proliferation of Syrah, which is now the second most planted variety after Grenache.

Originally from the Northern Rhône, Syrah arrived relatively recently in the south.

Domaine Condorcet claims it was first to plant Syrah in Châteauneuf-du-Pape in 1830, and it spread to the rest of the Southern Rhône much later.

It can be highly beneficial in a blend, bringing structure and spice, but primarily, according to Maxime-François Laurent of Domaine Gramenon, ‘Syrah was brought here to add a bit of colour’.

Syrah is naturally much darker than Grenache, so it can be a useful grape for reaching the required colour levels.

But its flavours can easily dominate a blend. And more and more winemakers believe it’s now ill-adapted to the hot Southern Rhône.

‘It’s not a typical variety here,’ says Maurice Goetschy of Château Boucarut in Lirac, ‘and sometimes it suffers in the heat.’

But winemakers are stuck with Syrah for the colour it provides – whether they like it or not.

A new category is born

Fortunately, change is afoot. Gilles says the Syndicat des Vignerons des Côtes du Rhône has initiated a revision of the rules, and a request has already been submitted to the French appellation authorities, the Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO).

Barrot confirms that AOC Châteauneuf-du-Pape is considering a similar revision, ‘with a decision expected in the coming months’.

Gilles says that the changes have been requested for several reasons: to simplify the cahier des charges, to adapt to climate change and to be able to bring new products to a changing market.

Gilles says: ‘Among the areas of market adaptation, we have submitted to the INAO the creation of a new Côtes du Rhône segment reserved for fresh, fruity and light wines where colour would no longer be a limiting factor.’

This could bring about a new category of pale red, clairet-style Côtes du Rhône wines.

Chapoutier’s Vin de France ‘Rouge Clair’ might give us an idea of what to expect: a pale-coloured, commercial, chillable red that’s all about juicy red fruit flavour.

‘We were surprised by how well it sold,’ says Maxime Chapoutier, proving there’s a market for this kind of product.

I’m not sure how exciting this new category will be, but I’m keeping an open mind.

If other appellations follow suit and relax their regulations around colour, this will be a welcome development, giving producers more freedom to create brilliant, characterful wines without being penalised for it.

The future’s bright.

Lighter Rhône reds:

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