Visiting producers in the Southern Rhône, the rising level of alcohol is a constant refrain. The wines of the south have always been powerful, of course, but it’s a new situation to have reds based on Grenache often reaching 15% alcohol or more, and whites often enough over 14%. Reactions among producers vary. Some take it in their stride. “With regards to alcohol we have harvested earlier than we used to, typically harvest has moved from September 20 to September 2, but maturity is the same. So we don’t consider too high alcohol to be a problem,” says Daniel Brunier at Vieux Télégraphe. Others are less sanguine. “You cannot trust Grenache now, it is minimum 15% alcohol,” says Jean-Michel Vache at Les Clos de Cazaux.

The most common response to rising alcohol in reds is to replant with Syrah as Grenache vineyards need to be replaced, or to go back to older varieties that previously were replaced with Grenache to get more flavor and color. But now there is something of a feeling that the move to Syrah has gone far enough. Jean-Michel is sceptical about other favored replacement varieties: “Counoise and Cinsault are good for rosé or rather light Côtes du Rhône,” he says. There is also a move to go back to the old practice of including some white grapes in the red cuvées.

The other transition is to move from black to white varieties. In my visits last week, several producers apologized that they could not show their white wine, because it had all sold out and the new vintage was not ready yet. With warmer temperatures encouraging a move to white wines, this is suggestive that climate change is creating demand that exceeds supply for whites, but producers are a bit nervous whether the trend will be sustained. The story you hear is not only that whites are replacing blacks, but that there’s a shift in white varieties towards those such as Clairette, which tend to have lower alcohol.

Gigondas AOP has decided that Clairette is the grape of the future in the south. Until the 2023 vintage, Gigondas has been restricted to red and rosé, but in 2012 the producers applied to have white added, and now the application has finally been granted. The unusual feature is a requirement that the assemblage should be at least 70% Clairette. “Clairette grown on sand and limestone has very specific typicity,” says Jean-Marie Amadieu at Pierre Amadieu. “There isn’t any typicity for Southern Rhône whites, except for the power of Châteauneuf du Pape. But when you taste a Clairette from this terroir, you know you are in Gigondas. And Clairette is very well adapted to resist global warming.”

There have been varietal cuvées from Clairette, or cuvées dominated by Clairette from Gigondas, for a while, but they have had to be labeled as Côtes du Rhône. This has led to a curious discordancy that for producers who have vineyards in, say, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, and Côtes du Rhône, their best white might actually have the least prestigious AOP label. That has made some of the Côtes du  Rhône whites a bit of a bargain. That may stop now that they will be labeled as Gigondas. At the present there are only about 16 ha of white varieties in Gigondas (although that is more than the area devoted to production of rosé), representing around 30 producers. The AOP’s target is to bring white production up to 15%  of total over five years.

Conventional wisdom is that there are two problems with Clairette: it tends to very high production; and acidity is low. This may not necessarily be true. “When you read the book about Clairette, it’s always written, high alcohol, low acidity, but I don’t think they were harvesting at the correct  time,” says Jean-Michel Vache. “Clairette is good but tends to high yields – you can easily get 100 hl/ha. You really have to work at it to keep yields down. We keep yields down for Clairette by two Spring prunings and a green harvest.”

“Clairette doesn’t have much acidity, and I was shocked when I saw the technical analysis of acidity, but it has freshness. I really like it,” says Corinna Faravel at La Martinelle in Ventoux. I tasted several varietal or near-varietal Clairettes during a week of visits in the Southern Rhône and I was struck by the lightness and freshness of the wines; and the alcohol levels around 12.5%, as noted in the tasting notes below, speak for themselves. These wines are a far cry from the old phenolic heaviness of whites of the area, although it’s too early to tell whether Gigondas has made an innovation that will spread.

The problem with trying to respond to climate change by changing the varieties are that are planted is that it’s a slow process. To plant a different variety requires finding a plot with appropriate terroir that needs to be replanted, or taking the risk of abandoning a currently productive plot. The replanted plot can’t make wine for 3 years, and probably won’t make really good wine for a few years after that. Trying to find selections or clones of the same variety that produce less alcohol is an even slower process – typically around 20 years. But do we have that much time?

Although you keep hearing that Grenache is being supplanted by other black varieties, and that black varieties are being replaced by whites, the figures for planted varieties actually show little change. In 2008, black varieties were 89.3% of plantings, including Grenache at 72% of total (80% of black varieties). Today black varieties are at 87.9%, including Grenache at 69% (76% of black varieties). Among the whites, proportions of varieties have not changed much, with Grenache Blanc and Clairette each close to one third, and Roussanne and Bourboulenc each close to 15%, although Roussanne has increased and Bourboulenc has decreased. This has not even kept pace with the rate of climate change let alone got ahead of it. More aggressive action is needed: but what?

Tasting Notes

La Martinelle, IGP Vaucluse, 2022  (Clairette 90%, Grenache Blanc 10%)
Fresh aromatics with some cereal notes. Spiciness comes to the fore on the palate and nicely offsets impressions of creaminess. Pressed straight off the skins with no maceration. Aged half in barrels and half in stainless steel, but feels like it has more oak exposure. Some heat on the finish. 12.5%   88.

Pierre Amadieu, Côtes du Rhône, Domaine Grand Romane 2022  (Clairette 100%)
The nose is just slightly appley. My companion, the Anima Figure, sees it as representing the garrigue. Fresh impression with balanced acidity, flavorful on palate with savory impressions in the background. Still young and tight, should open out in a few months. Light, airy impressions, with perhaps a touch of salinity. 12.5%   88.

Domaine Le Clos des Cazaux, Vacqueyras, Clairette Centenaire, 2019 

As the name indicates, this is a varietal wine from 100-year old vines. Slightly nutty, slightly savory, nose, leading to palate offering an impression of completeness. Lovely balance with only hints of phenolic aromatics, and a smooth, silky texture. A wine with subtlety, concentration, and intensity.    89