Cotes du Rhone

There are hundreds of wines and beers rated here.

Please use the manual search box and/or the full "tags" list (both in the right hand column on this page) to find what you like.

Also, kindly check out my magazine articles, linked below, on this page.

Cheers and thank you very much for visiting!

Country of origin is listed first, then the name of the grape(s), the maker, wine name, additional geographic information, and finally the vintage year.

C = Color. Rarely noted unless unique for that wine.

N = Nose, aroma - how it smells.

T = Taste, mouthfeel, finish.

I = "Intangible". Subjective feel. Squishy impressions on how the wine was independent of anything objective.

Either the American scholastic A-F "grades" scale, or the standard numeric scale is used.

A+ or 98-100 = Incredible. Beautiful. Elegant. The stars have aligned.

A or 94-97 = Total quality on all fronts. Seriously memorable. The starting material must have been excellent, and the winemaker clearly took pride in her/his art.

A- or 90-93 = Brilliant. Special stuff indeed. Do what you can to try it, you will not be disappointed.

B+ or 87-89 = Very Good. Above average quality. Worth a try.

B or 84-86 = Good.

B- or 80-83 = Good, with some detracting notes.

C- to C+ = Fair. Likely unbalanced. Faults, but not terminal ones.

D and F = Avoid. I rarely even post on these, unless it was a media sample. I will also always try to obtain a second bottle (to guard against bottle variation) before putting a wine in this category.

Notes:

I decant most tannin-rich red wines at least 20 minutes before tasting begins, usually an hour.

My ratings reflect my perceptions from, typically, multiple hours of smelling and sipping.

I try to taste at the same time of day, in the same glass, and without food to be as objective as possible.

Many wines I will vaccu-vin, refrigerate, and rate the next day to see how they hold up.

Finally, I taste and rate so many wines that a lot of the lesser wines fall to the back of my "to post" pile... accordingly, this site tends to focus on the best of the wines I rate each year (which, I assume is of higher importance to readers anyway).

Well, the pricing of wine is sadly dominated by marketing and fads. In short, a wine's price is not a highly reliable indicator of its quality.

Accordingly, many fantastic bargains exist.

The goal of this site is to help bring those gems to your glass!

Another way in which this site is different is that we only rate wines against other wines in their same price category.

In other words, you can use this site to find affordable gems, but you also can pick a price point and then look for the highest ratings within that monetary range.

Red Wine, White Wine, Beer, Scotch, Whisky, Whiskey, Bourbon, Rum, Rhum, Tequila, Mescal, Mezcal, Cachaca, Champagne, Sake, Grappa, Vodka, Cigars, Tobacco, Chocolate, Coffee, Cheese, Sushi, Travel, FlyFishing.

Favorite Wine Styles = Red Blends, Bordeaux (Claret), Meritage, Crisp Whites, Botrytis Infected, Late Harvest.

South American Focus = Red Blends, Carmenere, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Bonarda, and Torrontes.

Red Varietal Focus = Red Blends, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Malbec, Tannat, Pinot Noir, Charbono, Pinotage, Syrah, Shiraz, Zinfandel, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Maréchal Foch, Grenache, Merlot.

White Varietal Focus = White Blends, Late Harvest, Riesling, Gewurtzraminer, Muller-Thurgau, Torrontes, Semillon, Viognier, Muscat, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay.

Wine Region Focus = Argentina, Bordeaux, Brasil, Brazil, Casablanca Valley, California, Chile, Colchagua Valley, France, Germany, Lujan de Cuyo, Maipo, Maule Valley, Mendoza, Mexico, Napa, Oregon, Paso Robles, Patagonia, Rapel Valley, Rio Grande Do Sul, Sonoma, South Africa, Spain, Tupungato, Valle de Colchagua, Valle de Maule, Valle de Rapel, Vietnam, and Willamette Valley.