Wines from Ardèche

The Ardeche wine region (actually more of a sub-region) lies to the west of Lyon and is situated in remote and rugged gorges and valleys, where vineyards take a back seat to main stream agriculture as well as droves of hill walkers, adventurers or backswood folk, who just want to go off grid. Imagine the Lake District, without the lakes and more forested... and in France... and dotted here and there with vineyards (actually, that makes it pretty different from the English Lake District in truth!)... and the sun shines (very, very different then... !) Co-operatives are big here, as the farmers tend to plant grapes as a percentage of their farms, and the wines encompass all styles, made from a wide variety of permitted grapes such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Gamay, Cabernet etc.