Like it or not, when it comes to trends good or bad, California leads the nation. That is why the local debut of the Rhône Rangers should be looked on not as an imaginatively marketed one-off wine promotion but as an emblem of things to come in the world of Washington wine. Hereabouts we think drawing a crowd of 3,000 for the annual Taste Washington event is a pretty big deal. In California, where the Rangers promotion is in its seventh year, they pull in 3,000 for a celebration of just one grape (and its country cousins). This first Rhône Rangers outing in Seattle involves “only” seven restaurants, five seminars, and one grand tasting: Consider yourself warned.
When the Rangers first hit the trail back in the 1970s, California was only beginning to achieve international respect as a producer of fine wine, and since the world’s most prestigious wines at the time were produced in Bordeaux and made from cabernet sauvignon grapes, it was that grape ambitious Californians set out to grow and make their wines from. The Rangers—people who preferred to work with the traditional grapes of southern France, such as syrah—were regarded at best as quixotic, at worst as dilettantes; hence the half-mocking name they were given by the trade.
No laugh is ever quite the last in the wine business, but the dismissed Rhône Rangers have plenty of reason these days to chuckle. Less than 20 years ago, there were fewer than 100 acres of syrah grapes planted in California; by 2000, there were over 7,000 acres—two-thirds of them so recently planted that they weren’t even producing grapes yet.
A lot of reasons are given for the sudden recent surge in interest in syrah. Optimists favor the argument that as Americans grow more wine-friendly, they’re seeking out wines that are more people-friendly, not to mention pocketbook-friendly, and California cabernet is not particularly either. Merlot, with its softer contours and generally lower price point, has become the grape to beat, and many syrah fans look on it as the super-merlot, providing more of everything dollar for dollar—more flavor, more fragrance, more drinkability in general. Impressive as fine cabernet can be, you don’t generally think of it as a fun drink.
But even before the Rhône Rangers, like many derided minorities, proudly and officially adopted the title awarded them in jest, they’d moved far beyond advocacy of a single grape variety. France’s usually strict wine laws recognize that the Rhône Valley is a special case; nearly two dozen different grape varieties are allowed in winemaking, with 13 authorized for the single appellation of Châteauneuf-du-pape. America’s Rhône buffs don’t (yet) advocate growing and blending all these varieties, but they often go the old country one better by making wines 100 percent from varieties like carignane, cinsault, and counoise, which French winemakers rarely if ever use except for blending.
Although we talk about the Rhône as a single wine region, it is actually two, quite different in geology and climate. The northern Rhône is a narrow wind-scoured gorge, closer to Lyon and the vineyards of Burgundy than to Marseille and the Mediterranean. Here robust red syrah is king, with the little-known (till recently) viognier its graceful white consort. The southern Rhône is a more sprawling area with more diverse wines as well as grapes, with the grenache the featured player in the red blends the region is famous for.
The southern Rhône produces some noble wines, and some that benefit from years of age in barrel and bottle, but by and large its bounty is ready to drink as soon as it hits the market; so far nobody in the Rhône, a few astronomically priced exceptions like Hermitage and Condrieu aside, is talking about making people buy futures to procure a piece of the next vintage. Some of France’s most dedicated and serious winemakers work there; but while they would surely disapprove of anyone calling their sacred potions “fun wines,” you are certainly encouraged to smile as you drink them.
In the United States, Rhône varietals are still new enough that even growers and winemakers are having fun with them. At the tastings in Seattle next week, you may find it hard to believe all the syrahs on offer from over 50 California and Washington wineries are made from the same grape, let alone the dizzying spectrum of aromas and flavors created when more than half a dozen other kinds of grape get involved, sometimes fermented on their own and then blended, sometimes all squeezed together in one vat, sometimes allowed to bubble comfortably with the skins, sometimes decanted off as soon as they’ve picked up just a touch of color and tannic acerbity.
People who prefer their wine in small, manageable doses can partake in the festivities by joining the diners at one of eight special suppers devised by area restaurants to meld with the wines of particular makers. For those who want it all, dinner’s almost compulsory, since it guarantees a half-price ticket to the July 10 Saturday afternoon Grand Tasting at the waterfront Marriott Hotel. For anyone, from the casually intrigued to the passionately committed, a visit to the Rhône Ranger Web site—a model of clarity and organization—is essential. You may as well submit; resistance is futile.
Rhône Rangers in Seattle Grand Tasting: 2–5 p.m. Sat., July 10; $50 (advance tickets available at www.rhonerangers.org and Seattle area wine shops). Marriott Waterfront, 2100 Alaskan Way. For more information about the winemaker dinners, visit www.rhonerangers.org and click on Events.
