Roannaise, Côte

Roannaise, Côte, hand-crafted, lightish reds and some rosés made chiefly from locally adapted gamay grapes, called St-Romain à Jus Blanc here, using Beaujolais cellar techniques, usually semi-carbonic maceration. The south east-facing slopes of the upper Loire, on which vines are grown on a granitic base, are only one range of hills west of the beaujolais region. Direct river and canal links with Paris gave the region’s wines relative fame and popularity in the 19th century so that annual production was almost 800,000 hl/21.1 million gal at the beginning of the 20th century. Production was down to 4,000 hl by 1994 when appellation contrôlée status was won and was 5,656 hl from 161 ha of vineyards in 2012. Wine quality is in the hands of individual winemakers (unlike Côtes du forez to the south), egged on by the Troisgros family at their famous restaurant in the town of Roanne.