Vinsobres, a village appellation in the southern Rhône Valley that has made only red wine under its own name since it was created in 2006, is now allowed to make white wine too. The appellation's new rule book, its cahier des charges, was approved by a French government order dated June 8, 2026, published in the Journal Officiel on June 11 and in the agriculture ministry's official bulletin on June 18. Its first line on product types now reads that the Vinsobres appellation is reserved for still white and red wines.

Where Vinsobres is

The appellation covers one commune, Vinsobres, in the Drôme department in the north of the southern Rhône, between the better-known villages of the Vaucluse and the foothills of the Alps. Vinsobres was first recognized as its own appellation by a decree of February 15, 2006. Before that its wines were sold as Côtes du Rhône Villages. Its reds are built on Grenache, with Syrah and Mourvèdre.

The grapes allowed in the white

The new rules name five principal white grapes and six accessory ones:

  • Principal: Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier
  • Accessory: Bourboulenc, Clairette Rose, Grenache Gris, Piquepoul Blanc, Vermentino and Ugni Blanc

The five principal grapes together must make up at least 75 percent of the plantings a grower uses for the white. Those are the familiar white grapes of the Rhône: Marsanne and Roussanne from the north, Viognier from Condrieu, Grenache Blanc and Clairette from the south, and Vermentino, the grape Provence calls Rolle.

The other rules that shape the wine

  • Yield: 40 hectoliters per hectare for the white, against 38 for the red, with a ceiling of 44.
  • Ripeness: grapes for the white need a natural potential alcohol of at least 12 percent at harvest.
  • Area: grapes must be grown, and the wine made and aged, within the commune of Vinsobres.

The rule book's own description of the white sets the target style: pale and bright with green glints when young, turning more golden with age, with aromas led by white-fleshed fruit and flowers.

When to look for it

A wine can only carry the appellation once the vines it comes from meet the rules, so the first bottles labeled Vinsobres blanc will be small in number and are likely to reach export markets slowly. Until then, white wine from the village's growers is sold under the regional Côtes du Rhône name. When you see Vinsobres on a white label, the grapes above are what is in it, and Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier lend it the fuller, rounder texture the southern Rhône's whites are known for.

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