These Rhônes Are Made for Aging

Unless you’re collecting high-end bottles of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo or Napa Valley Cab, there’s a prevailing notion—and an even more prevailing practice—that both red and white wines should be consumed when young. There’s truth to this, particularly if you enjoy the fresh and fruity qualities a youthful wine offers.

But you can unlock far more magic from wines if you age them a bit longer in your cellar.

Nowhere is this more the case than with Rhône-style wines, both those from their homeland in France and for ones grown in California and beyond in the New World, which are typically consumed within a handful years after bottling. Whether the bottle is Syrah, a Grenache-led red blend or a white featuring Marsanne or Roussanne, these are wines you should be laying down and checking in with every few years.

More Than Meets the Eye

“The idea that Rhône wines are best drunk young is a misapprehension,” says Patrick Will, a vice president and in-house Rhône expert at the importer Vintus Wines. “They are pleasant to drink young, as they do give more fruit. But there are immense amounts of pleasure from the bottom to the top in seeing how these wines evolve over five, 10, 15 years. Even if you don’t spend $425 on the bottle, it’s worth putting in your cellar to see what happens. It’s usually very good.”

Will would know. He was inducted into the Echansonnerie des Pâpes (Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s wine brotherhood) in 2008 and is considered by Phillipe Guigal as his family’s avatar for speaking on behalf of the legendary Rhône producer at dinners and panels around the world.

Aging is the whole point of Syrahs from the Northern Rhône. “They’re made with the thought that they’re going to have an aging curve, not unlike Bordeaux,” says Will, referring to wines from Côte-Rôtie, Cornas and, especially, Hermitage. “Nobody makes Hermitage to be drunk soon.”

Their evolution reminds him of nuts. “If you think of the character of a raw chestnut, it’s slightly green and woody,” says Will, explaining that an aged wine is more like “a roasted chestnut, which opens up to something softer and smokier.”

Different Wines for Different Drinkers

In the warmer Southern Rhône, the wines tend to be riper, often designed to be enjoyed soon. But if the blend is made with the cellar in mind? “These wines age out beautifully,” says Will, arguing that the inclusion of Mourvedre is especially important for cellaring. “When the tannins fall away, you really have a very Burgundian style of wine.”

For Rhône whites, he says they’re “delightful” in their youth, but that patience will produce even more incredible textures and savory flavors. There’s a curious phenomenon, however, for many of these whites from the Rhône Valley, as they enter a “dump period” around year three or four that lasts for a spell.

“They take a dive after a few years, then come back shinier than ever,” says Will, who’s witnessed this in whites from both the Northern and Southern Rhone. “It’s a mystery, but I’ve seen it so many times. I can’t explain it.”

Wine Enthusiast’s Rhône Valley critic Anna Christina Cabrales enjoys surprising her friends by giving these wines plenty of time to breathe before serving them, a process that mimics aging.

“We see folks make quick judgement calls on Rhône reds, calling them too bold, rustic or bitter even,” she explains. “And the whites from the region that never get proper aeration. I love opening a bottle the night before friends come over, blinding them on these wines and watching their jaws drop.”
Letting Rhônes properly breathe or aging them in the cellar opens their full range of flavors. “They’re full of warmth, emotion and complexity and we often see hints of it when it’s too late—when there’s only two ounces left in the glass and you wish you had more,” she says. “That’s why it’s always smart to buy Rhône in large format.”

A Study in Grapes and Terroir

Out in California, Bob Lindquist, who founded his original brand Qupe in 1982, is one of the West Coast’s historic Rhône pioneers. He argues that aging Syrah, Marsanne and Roussanne is the only way to really understand these grapes. He learned that early on, when he visited Gérard Chave of Domaine Jean-Louis Chave in the Northern Rhône back in 1988. “He pulled out a 1959 Hermitage white, and it was still so young and vibrant and fresh,” says Lindquist. “I was like, ‘Wow.’”

Lindquist, who now produces under the Lindquist Family Wines label, already understood that Syrah was better with age, especially when it was grown in a cooler climate. These wines typically start off with intense raspberry and pepper flavors, but then they change dramatically with patience.

“It evolves into smoke and meat and gamyness,” he says. “It really does become a more interesting, complex wine with age.”

He added Marsanne to his lineup in 1987 and then Roussanne in 1995. “You can put down the Marsanne and Roussanne as long as you can the Syrah,” he’s learned.

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Marsanne especially benefits from patience. “It really is kind of boring when it’s young,” says Lindquist. “It can make a nice fresh white wine, and has that wet stone character, the way a street smells after a rain. But it’s never something that’s gonna wow you.”

But if you wait? Patience is rewarded. “As it ages, it gets more honeyed and nutty,” said Lindquist.

Rousanne, meanwhile, is a bit more bold. “Roussanne ages with more depth and more power,” says Lindquist. “Both work really well as a post-dinner, dry dessert wine to have with the right cheeses.”

The smartest move, of course, is to explore Rhône wines as they age. “I used to tell people to buy two cases,” says Lindquist. “One to drink now, and one to put down for at least 10 years.”

More Rhône Valley Coverage

Churches, Cafes and Châteaux: the most idyllic villages of the Southern Rhône.
Determination and devotion is changing perceptions of the Rhône Valley.
What is Côtes du Rhône?
Famously affordable, Côtes du Rhône is an even better value now.
If loving Rhône is wrong, then I don’t want to be right, writes critic Anna-Christina Cabrales.