This southern Rhone wine region that we're staying in stretches from Montelimar to Avignon. There are 123 communes (i.e. villages, geographic regions, towns, etc.) that can label their wine with Cotes du Rhone (CDR). Upscale from those wines are 95 communes producing Cotes du Rhone-Villages (CDRV). Next in the hierarchy are 18 named CDRV, of which Cairanne is one. Finally the most distinguished wines come from 16 cru villages, which like Chateauneuf-du-Pape, use only their name to identify the wine. Today our travels began in heavily overcast skies - no Provencal blue to be had. We selected a route that would take us to some previously unexplored CDRV. So, we headed north over the hills on my favourite road along the Aigues Valley. We've noticed this year in particular, that there are an abundance of white flowers growing among the vines. Maybe we just missed this previous years, but we don't remember seeing them before. Is there a reason they aren't cultivated out? Don't know.
We first passed through named CDRV St. Maurice sur Eygues, then drove up to the cru village of Vinsobres.
Things are looking pretty posh here following their recent elevation to cru status and therefore their more valuable wines. After passing through Nyons - a lot faster on a non-market day - we travelled up the D538, being reminded there is a rapid transformation from olive producing Nyons to lavender country.
Needless to say, the lavender fields aren't as spectacular at this time of year. Our next stop was the named CDRV St. Pantaleon les Vignes.
Back on the D538, we then stopped at the next named CDRV on our trip, Rousset les Vignes.
Although I did mess with the panoramic shot, I did not change a thing in the shot through the vines. Two more stops included Le Pegue
and Montbrison.
Last stop before heading south again was at Taulignan with it's eleven towers. By now, the skies had opened up and we were in full downpour.
The road home took us through two more named CDRV, Valreas and Visan, but it was too wet to get out of the car for pics. So, back at chez Pigeon we had a large lunch with no terrace time today.
Packing and some cleaning up might have commenced today, but there is still tomorrow. We also had a good Facetime with Canada and Alleluia, the Jays have brought the series back to Toronto.
Things are looking pretty posh here following their recent elevation to cru status and therefore their more valuable wines. After passing through Nyons - a lot faster on a non-market day - we travelled up the D538, being reminded there is a rapid transformation from olive producing Nyons to lavender country.
Needless to say, the lavender fields aren't as spectacular at this time of year. Our next stop was the named CDRV St. Pantaleon les Vignes.
Back on the D538, we then stopped at the next named CDRV on our trip, Rousset les Vignes.
Although I did mess with the panoramic shot, I did not change a thing in the shot through the vines. Two more stops included Le Pegue
and Montbrison.
Last stop before heading south again was at Taulignan with it's eleven towers. By now, the skies had opened up and we were in full downpour.
The road home took us through two more named CDRV, Valreas and Visan, but it was too wet to get out of the car for pics. So, back at chez Pigeon we had a large lunch with no terrace time today.
Packing and some cleaning up might have commenced today, but there is still tomorrow. We also had a good Facetime with Canada and Alleluia, the Jays have brought the series back to Toronto.
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