Some 20 miles to the east of the Rhône river is the picturesque Drôme Valley, where the Drôme river flows down from the Alps. This marks the halfway point in the Rhône Valley and the boundary between the Northern wines and the Southern. It is also the marker between the alpine country to the north and the Midi and Provence areas of the south.
Coteaux de Die is the AC term for the tiny amounts of still white made from the Clairette varietal produced around the town of Die in the Drôme Valley. Up until the 1920s only still wine was produced in Die, and that only from the Clairette, thus the entire area was under the AC Clairette de Die. Since then more and more sparkling wine has been produced, and now the AC Clairette de Die refers to a sparkling wine made from a rare method and produced from Clairette and Muscat, while Crémant de Die refers to sparkling wine made by the Champagne method using only Clairette as a base. All of this and the original still wine made from Clairette lost its name, now labeled Coteaux de Die.
The limestone and clay soil provides a good base for the crisp wines produced here.
France → Rhône → Southern Rhône
French AOC