The northern Rhone rated a high 9 that year; the southern Rhone, at best a low 6.

The restaurant has the wines of the southern Rhone at its fingertips, but its list is sadly mediocre.

Similarly, the chart cannot easily take into account the poor weather in the southern Rhone in 1991.

On a gentle rise of north-facing vineyards between the city and the sea is one of the southern Rhône's most celebrated wine properties.

But Châteauneuf and the southern Rhone is a land of blends.

"It reminds me of Beaumes-de-Venise," he said, referring to a sweet muscat-based fortified wine from the southern Rhone.

Almost any red-wine grape can go into a rosé, though some, like the myriad grapes of the southern Rhone, take to it better than others.

Guigal is one of the most honored producers in the southern Rhone and his 1985 here was an excellent value at $12.50.

More wine is made in this one area of southern Rhône than in the entirety of the northern Rhône region.

The star of the southern Rhone is Chateauneuf-du-Pape.