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 the Languedoc AOP includes the following text: ‘The eastern half of Languedoc is dominated by the regional appellation Languedoc AOP. Formerly Coteaux du Languedoc AOC, this appellation encompasses all of Languedoc-Roussillon’. Is this accurate? My understanding is that the Languedoc AOP does not include the territory included within the Malepère AOP. And indeed, if one searches for the communes identified in the Aire géographique section of the Cahier des Charges for the Malepère AOP, one will find they are absent from the same section of the Cahier des Charges for the Languedoc AOP (some of the communes do show up in the Aire de proximité immédiate section, but my understanding is that is where the wine is vinified and produced, not where the grapes are grown).
That's correct.