Cote de Rhone label info

Larry wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

It is one of those French things, they expect you to know the general description of the wine from the AOC designation.

Larry wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Cotes du Rhone (with circumflexes over both 'o's). Guigal is a really good, solid producer and his Cotes-du-Rhone is one of the best. I think it is one of the best widely available wines at the price.

Not big enough for you? Some of the Cotes du Rhone can be very thin and quite acidic, but the medium-weight ones (I find) can be excellent autumn food wines.

Because they are the rules of the AOC. What that means (amongst other things) is that the wine is produced according to a set of rules that say which grapes it may be made from, where the grapes come from, how many grapes are produced in the vineyard (per ha, etc.)

So you can be 'sure' that a Cotes-du-Rhone that you buy will be 'typical' of the Cotes-du-Rhone style (together with an expression of the winemaker). Unfortunately, you don't know what that style is without trying, but that's no bad thing. And after all, that's why we buy wine from merchants rather than supermarkets.