Ep. 956 Map 9 Southern Rhone | Jumbo Shrimp Maps

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitally International Academy, announcing the twenty fourth of our Italian wine Ambassador courses to be held in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, from the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Are you up for the challenge of this demanding force? Do you wanna be the next Italian wine Ambassador? Learn more and apply now at viniti international dot com. Welcome to jumbo shrimp wine study maps. We have specially created this free content for all our listeners who are studying for wine exams. This has been a journey of development since Stevie Kim discovered Rosie Baker's hand drawn maps on Instagram through two years of work by our in house editorial and graphics team, and now the maps are available to purchase in beta form while they undergo the final briefing and editing by our expert advisory board. It's a three layered project because we know everyone learns differently. We now offer the complete box set of thirty nine maps. This series of podcasts with the maps narrated by our crack team of wine educators. And finally, the study guide book, which will be published later this year. Our map project is in no way a substitute for the materials set out by other educational organizations, but we hope all the wine students out there will find our map project a new, exciting, and useful tool for learning. For more information and to buy the maps, please visit our website at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Welcome to the jumbo shrimp wine study maps podcast. This episode will be looking at the southern road map. For the first time in our series exploring the regions of France, we have a Mediterranean climate, so mild winters, warm dry summers, where potentially drought might become an issue. We still have this mistrial wind that we've been talking about, but here we don't have the influence of local mountains or the river valley in order to protect the grapes. So we need to start thinking about techniques that grape growers can use to protect the grapes themselves. Thus, we have the introduction of windbreaks into vineyards or the use of Alberlo training. In comparison to the Northern Roan, which is a narrow steep river valley, here in the southern road, it is much flatter. It's very hot. And we have very specific stone soils. These really large stones that cover the vineyards, and they absorb heat during the day and bounce it back onto the vines at night, which really aids ripening in particularly the black, great varieties that need heat such as grenache and Mulvet. Also, to some extent, Cira. Because it is such a dry region, and we have these strong winds to take any moisture away from the vines, we do have quite a lot of easy organic production here. As I mentioned in the previous episode, there is a regional appalachian for the entire Roan Valley, which is the côte d'orone. Now although it does cover the entire own valley, the focus is in the southern rhone, which much easier to grow grapes. More than half of these côte d'orone wines are red, but they do also produce rose and white wines from the local grape varieties. The next step up is the village at Palación. So you might see cote d'aron village, so grapes being picked from any of the named villages. Just gaining a little bit more intensity and complexity, maybe seeing a little bit of oak use here, and then you will have the villages, so specific villages that have been given their own appelacion that can just label with the village name. These are also known as the cruise. So, for example, you may see just Vakaras or Gigandas on the label. Perhaps the most famous of these villages, these cruise is Shatunorf to Papp. Some villages focus on red wine production. Others will have red, white, and rose, some focus on just white or rose. I'm afraid you've got to learn them. So let's take a look at the great varieties that can be used in this area and then we'll talk in more detail about some of the specific crews that you will need to know for your exams. Let's start with the most commonly planted, which are the black, great varieties, and starting with green ash. This is a thin, skinned grape variety that loves heat seems a little bit paradoxical, but it loves heat. It doesn't really love sunshine, so you have to be a little bit careful of sunburn. It dominates most of the red wines that you find in the in Rome. It is the most widely planted. It gives concentrated, spiced red fruit, also a little bit of white pepper. So really focused on red plum, very, very ripe strawberry and raspberry. The problem is it can accumulate sugar very quickly, therefore producing higher alcohol wines can be a little bit baked and jammy, particularly in years where it gets warm very quickly. Often see green ash in these bush trained albirello style goblet vines. This protects them from the winds. It hangs the grapes low to the soil. So low to these big stones that are helping to warm up and ripen them. Next up, we have sera. Now sera is used in the grenache blends to add a little bit more tannin and acidity. It also provides black fruit in contrast to the red fruit of grenache and black pepper to enhance the white pepper character. It's not suited to the hottest sites. So you have to be a little bit careful where it's planted. Quite often these are still planted in trellises, which means there could be wind damage. Italian wine podcast. If you think you love wine as much as we do, then give us a like and a follow anywhere you get your pods. Next up, we have Morvedge. This is another great variety that loves heat. It is also very deeply colored and highly tannic and gives very dark black fruit tobacco and game. And finally, we have Sanso. Now this is not planted a lot, but it's used in blends to aid with the red fruit profile of Granache, and it adds a lot of acidity. This is a great variety we're going to see again when we look at the very southern area of France. White varieties down here in the southern Rome really echo that that we see in the northern Rome, so vigner, Marsan, Russo, but we also see the addition of Granache Blanc. The best white wines here are very richly textured, full bodied, quite a lot of alcohol, sometimes only medium acidity, and can have some strong peach characters perfume from Vionier, but Granash Blanc really echoing Rousan in its stone fruit peach. Nectarine apricot character. Don't see a lot of new oak used on the white wines, but do get some older oak just to add either subtle flavors or some gentle oxygen contact. As we saw in beaujolais, And also in the discussion of Crozermitage and Ermitage, one of the key things that really you should be looking out for in questions about the Southern Roan, are those about differences in style? So thinking about the difference between Côte de Rone, regional appelastion level wines, and crew level wines, such as Chateau Nuf du Per. Also, quite often, you have questions about some of the appelastions that focus on wines that are not red. For example, it's really important that you don't forget about rose production here. For example, Tavell, possibly the most famous Apelastion for rose, and also Lyric, produces whites, roses, and reds, but can have a focus on rose sometimes. Why rose? Well, grenache being thin skinned, low tannin, is really suitable for the production of rose. So you can leave it in contact with the skins during fermentation and gain lots of fruit flavor, but less tannins, and color. Because you have the potential sugar, therefore alcohol accumulation in green ash, then you also tend to have full bodied wines, sometimes a little bit age worthy specifically in Tavell. Problem with Granash's acidity are often balanced in Rosay blends by using Sandso. So let's just spend a small amount of time discussing these crew wines and the differences between crew wines and the côte d'urone, Apelacian wines or the côte d'urone Velage wines. So the key crew wines that you need to know for your level three, let's start with Yagandas and Vacaras. These are long standing cruise status wines, Granache blends, full bodied, and spicy. They're similar in styles of Shata Neurf to Papp, but tend to be a little bit more affordable because they are lesser known. Shata Neurf to Papp is the most famous Appalachian in the southern Rome, if not France, and was the first Appalachian Control a to be recognized. It's really known as a brand name as much as an Appalachian control a. In fact, it is the largest crew in the Roan Valley, and therefore, there is a lot of variation in quality and price between producers, even if the blends are very similar. There are thirteen different grape varieties grown here. Don't worry. Don't need to know all of them, but they tend to be green ash dominated. They're also full bodied powerful high alcohol wines with great suitability for aging, gaining this gamy, meaty quality, lots of mouvedt giving tobacco here. All three of these crews producing four bodied, spicy, age worthy wines with lots of intensity and complexity, potentially high, alcohol, hytanin, high acidity, a complete contrast with the wines of coat Dorone regional appelastron, which tend to be soft and fruity, lighter bodied, low to medium tannin, a little bit higher acidity potentially here, mostly because the fruit intensity is less. Therefore, the acidity tends to be more noticeable. Not really suitable for aging. These will be junk, young. They are inexpensive, often simple blends. One of the reasons behind asking about the differences between the crew wines and the regional appylation coat Dorone wines as thinking about winemaking techniques and those that you might use in the two different styles, for example, potentially using some of these carbonic or semi carbonic maceration styles in the coat, Durham, to produce light, fruity, low tannin wines, easy drinking, lots of stainless steel because you want to be able to temperature control, to contain freshness in the wines, in contrast to the crew wines where you might be thinking about ways to extract more tannin, more color, more flavor. So thinking about pre fermentation maceration, post fermentation maceration, pumping over, punching down, also using oak open fermentation, lots of different things to gain increased levels of complexity and depth in the wines, and also structure to aid in age worthiness. Join me in the next episode where we're going to be talking about the south of France. Thanks for listening to this episode of Italian wine podcast brought to you by Vineetli Academy, home of the gold standard of Italian wine education. Do you want to be the next ambassador? Apply online at benito international dot com for courses in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Remember to subscribe and like Italian wine podcast and catch us on SoundCloud, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods. You can also find our entire back catalog of episodes at Italian wine podcast dot com. Hi, guys. I'm Joy Livingston, and I am the producer of the Italian wine podcast. Thank you for listening. We are the only wine podcast that has been doing a daily show since the pandemic began. This is a labor of love and we are committed to bring you free content every day. 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