Few wine regions are able to lay claim to so glorious a past...

As the mighty Rhône river races towards the South and the Mediterranean sun, it unites rather than divides the great strips of country either side of its banks. Along both its shores stretch vineyards that are among the oldest in France, prestigious in some places and virtually unknown in others. In terms of producing fine wines, the Rhône Valley is the second largest viticultural area in France, after Bordeaux.   In terms of quality, it can compete at the highest level with some of the Bordeaux Crus and can excite the interest of connoisseurs just as much as some of the most highly prized Bordeaux and Burgundies.

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Few wine regions are able to lay claim to so glorious a past, and from Vienna to Avignon there is no single village that is not recorded in some of the most memorable pages of French History. The oldest vineyard in the country is said to be on the banks of the Vienne river, and it was originally created by the Phocaean Greeks who journeyed up from Marseille and developed later by the Romans. The Templars, in the 12^th Century, planted the first vines at Châteauneuf du Pape, and the good work was continued by Pope John XXII two centuries later.