Costières de Nîmes
The Rhône’s best kept secret
It’s only an hour’s drive from Avignon, but the further you wade into Costières de Nîmes, the more you feel the difference. Giant saw-toothed pampas grass guard the roadsides like policemen built from blue-green armoured plates. Wild white horses scatter as you pass. This is no longer Provence; this is the Camargue, the Rhône’s sprawling delta as it feeds into the Mediterranean. And just as it has its own landscape and culture, you hear a different accent in the wines; still typical of the region, but with a fresh, estuarine tang.
Ripples through the centuries
The appellation was granted in 1986, but this area has been renowned for its wines for centuries. The Greeks started developing vineyards here in the 5th century B.C., and the Romans built on their work. Wine amphorae produced in the area have been found as far afield as Italy, which proves that these wines weren’t just for local consumption – they were valuable enough to export. In the Middle Ages, as is so often the case in France, the monks picked up the baton; first the Benedictines, then the Cistercians. Later on, several abbeys would supply their wines to the Avignon popes.
By the 17th century, the wine industry was booming; the Canal du Midi and the railways helped to ferry the wines to new markets. The vineyard area spread to over twice what it is today. But after phylloxera struck, it took time for the region to bounce back.
The renaissance started in the 1950s with the work of Philippe Lamour, who helped spearhead a new project of canals and waterways that channelled water from the Rhône to feed plantations of fruit trees and new vineyards. The fields are often greener here than further north, you sense the moisture in the air.
Maritime influence
Costières de Nîmes certainly has its own distinctive character, but you need only to look down to your feet to see its umbilical link to the Rhône river. Rounded galets roulés over clay limestone stretch for as far as the eye can see. The word costière refers to this undulating raised bank of pebbles in fact. These are the same Villafranchian deposits found in Lirac and Châteauneuf, carried by the Rhône and Durance rivers from the Alps.
It’s a substantial appellation covering 24 villages, and there are two distinct styles of wine; the north and south. Both areas take their names from established abbeys, the north being Saint-Roman, a Benedictine abbey dating back to the seventh century and the south, Franquevaux, a cistercian abbey dating back to the 13th century.
Saint-Roman is largely flat and sits at around 60m above sea level. There’s a little more limestone and loess in the soils here, and the dominant wind is the boisterous northerly mistral. Reds wines are concentrated and spicy. The southern
part is called Franquevaux, which gently slopes down to the sea. The pebbles here are a little smaller, and the prevailing wind is the dewy marin, a south wind that rolls in over the Mediterranean sea.
These reds are soft, elegant and juicy.
For now at least, these two areas aren’t officially recognised as geographical subdivisions on labels, but it’s likely that they will be at some stage in the future.
These are the southernmost vineyards of the Rhône Valley, but paradoxically they are also some of the coolest. This is easily explained. When the summer sun gradually heats up this enormous bank of pebbles during the day, it causes hot air to rise. This sucks in cool sea air, which drops afternoon temperatures by 3 to 4˚C. The proximity to the sea also makes for cooler nights, which helps to retain fresh aromatics in the wines.
Since the early 2000s, the appellation has adopted a number of programmes to promote sustainable and organic farming, and now a remarkable 25% of the vineyard area is certified organic – well above the regional average.
Three colours – and a secret speciality
Grenache is widely planted here, but the dominant red grape is Syrah, which is well-suited to the cooler climate. It brings a certain straightness, structure and subtle spice to the wines. Mourvèdre is also popular; its synonym ‘Plant de Saint-Gilles’ refers to the village of Saint-Gilles in the southern part of the appellation next to wide coastal ponds near the sea. It offers depth, structure and ageability to the blend. As does Carignan; Cinsault and Marselan add a little freshness and lift.
The Rhône Valley vineyards are often associated with, full-bodied, fireside red wines but red Costières de Nîmes tend to be a little less bulky, their fruits not quite as dark as some. Red berries and plums are more common, as are fresh herbs like sage and rosemary, and even a little seaweed.
Reds make up almost half of all wines made here, but rosé isn’t far behind, with 48% of production. They use the same
grapes as the reds and are typically pale in colour, with raspberry and strawberry fruits, made in an aperitif style – lighter than some of the region’s rosés.
White wines may only make up 9% of the total, but the potential for quality is impressive. Like the reds and rosés, they’re always made of a blend of at least two varieties, and one of those has to be Grenache Blanc, Marsanne or Roussanne. Other possibilities are Bourboulenc, Clairette, Macabeu, Vermentino and Viognier. Depending on the blend and winemaking techniques, styles vary from the brisk and bright through to rich, oak aged examples. But even the boldest are more discreet than an average white from the region, with a distinctive sea-spray saltiness on the finish.
Hidden within Costières de Nîmes, there is another white wine waiting to be discovered. If the winemakers of the little village of Bellegarde make wines from pure Clairette, they can apply to bottle them under a different appellation – AOC Clairette de Bellegarde. At just 7 hectares it’s one of the tiniest appellations of the Rhône Valley vineyards, but it makes a captivating and remarkably long-lived dry and still white from this emblematic regional white variety.
Costières de Nîmes shares the same long history of winemaking with the rest of the Rhône Valley, but increasingly it leads the way in terms of sustainability and organic viticulture. It may share the galets roulés of its more famous northern neighbours but this is a wine with a very particular inflection, one that speaks with a unique maritime twang. A style that grows more and more alluring with every wine you try.