A River Runs Through It

Follow the Rhône River south from Lyon, and you'll trace one of humanity's oldest wine routes. Roman legions marched here, medieval popes made this their home, and today's winemakers continue traditions stretching back two millennia. But this 150-mile journey reveals not one wine region but two, as different as siblings raised apart.

The Northern Rhône is vertical—a narrow corridor where vines cling to granite slopes so steep that helicopters sometimes spray them. It's Syrah's spiritual home, where this noble grape achieves a perfumed power found nowhere else. The Southern Rhône spreads horizontally across sun-baked plains, where Grenache leads a symphony of grapes in creating wines of warmth and generosity.

Between them lies a gap—40 miles with no vines, where the valley widens and the climate shifts. This natural break creates two distinct wine cultures united by a river and a shared history of making some of France's most food-friendly, authentic wines.