Long live the Rhone Rangers
The phrase ‘Rhone Rangers’ is hugely symbolic of the disaster that has affected so many sections of the European wine industry over the last decade.
Rhone Rangers were Californian winemakers who adopted the grapes of the Rhone Valley as their working tools. They planted Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre vines across California’s vast vineyards. They proceeded to make wines that they and US critics claimed were better than anything produced in the Rhone Valley, or ‘‘old Europe’’, as President George W Bush has called it.
France ignored this incursion, believing that the wine lover could not be interested in ...
