The Rhône Valley in France is overwhelmingly devoted to red wine production.
While the Rhône River is dotted with vineyards from its headwaters in Switzerland to its mouth on the French Mediterranean coast, the Rhône Valley properly refers to two clusters of appellations along the banks of the river in Southern France. The Northern Rhône, or Rhône septentrionale, occupies a narrow band of vineyards hugging the river just south of Beaujolais, from Vienne to Valence. The vineyards of the Southern Rhône, or Rhône méridionale, funnel outward south of Montélimar toward Avignon, near the river’s Mediterranean basin. While these two separate stretches are often considered collectively, the Northern and Southern Rhône are climatically and viticulturally distinct.
The Rhône Valley and its environs boast a long history of enological importance. The introduction of winemaking in France can be traced to the Greeks, who established vine cultivation at their Massalia settlement—modern-day Marseilles—in approximately 600 BCE. At the height of Greek trade, some 10 million liters of wine in amphorae were shipped through Massalia into the heart of Gaul via the Rhône River. The Romans continued this trend with their arrival in the Southern Rhône in 125 BCE, and viticulture spread to the Northern Rhône by the first century CE. The Northern Rhône’s picturesque, hallmark terraces were first constructed by Roman workers. Vienne evolved as an important Roman provincial capital, and the Viennese vinum picatum, or "pitched wine," was exported to Rome itself. Whether vinum picatum was simply a reference to the wine’s character resulting from its mode of transport
The section on Châteauneuf-du-Pape includes the following text: ‘Today, a papal crest embossed on the shoulder of the bottle marks all estate-bottled wines from the appellation.’ This issue has been raised previously in the comments below, and there’s a fascinating thread archived in the GuildSomm forum dedicated to the subject, but I remain unclear. Is the claim being made here that the non-papal crest bottles coming from members of the Syndicat Intercommunal de Défense Viticole de l'Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée Châteauneuf-du-Pape are not estate-bottled? Or is this a situation where the Study Guide text just needs to be updated? It would be helpful to know either way.
Hi Keith, this is a great question and I agree that the study guide needs an update. From what I've seen elsewhere, I think that Emily Harrington's comment in the thread you linked to above is likely the correct explanation, and if this is the case, I believe that only estate produced and bottled wines would qualify for the papal crest since others would not be eligible for membership in the Federation. That said, I think there's still room for a bit more clarity here. It might be interesting to repost this comment as a question in the discussion forum to see if others might have more insight.