Advice Needed about Provence/ Chateauneuf du-Pape/ Southern Rhone Wine Region

Saturday markets in Provence: they are extremely busy with traffic jams and hard-to-find parking. I went to the market in St. Remy on a Saturday and thank goodness my hotel was right across the street. In Provence, each village has a market on a different day of the week. So, you could actually go to a market every morning. Check out this website: https://provencedays.com/explore/activities/markets/ Yes, each market has some of the same vendors you saw the day before. And then, there are different ones. Love the markets in the smaller towns/villages such as Gordes, Bonnieux, etc. We stayed at a B&B right outside of Bonnieux for 6 lovely nights and thoroughly enjoyed the Luberon. In that region, there are a lot of B&Bs. Check out this website: chambres d'hotes for gites and B&Bs. Have a great trip.

Hi,

I visited that region in March, 2018 and used Avignon as a base. If you like Rose's, you should look into the Tavel appellation which, I believe, is the only appellation dedicated entirely to Rose wines. I believe it was just about a 15 minute drive north of the city of Avignon. They had a really good "cave/commune" called Les Vignerons de Tavel that offered some great tastings, along with recommendations for vineyards.

Tavel is just about 10-15 drive across the Rhone River from Chateau Neuf de Pape where I visited and enjoyed Chateau Fortia for tastings and a tour. The wines were excellent and they were able to box up and ship two cases of wine for me back to Boston.

Finally, in the Provence area, I visited and enjoyed Domaine de Sainte Ser - www.sainte-ser.com - which had great tastings and tours. I really enjoyed the tours, and the bold reds, especially the Hauts de Sainte Ser.

Good luck

If you like rosés, Tavel is ground zero for best producers.

One winery visit you might consider, particularly if you are not a fluent French speaker, is Domaine de Mourchon. They have tours in English (ironically explained here in French) as the owner is Scottish if I remember correctly. They will take the time to show you their rather impressive facility. If you have even a general idea of what is involved in setting up a winery, you´ll appreciate this operation. These people spared no expense and it is worth the time to see what they have accomplished.

The Roman ampitheatre in Orange is worth a stop, about 11 km north of the Chateau.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange,_Vaucluse
It is sometimes used for open-air opera, with wonderful acoustics.

@Denise- thank you for providing the link to the market days. That was helpful! :)

Hi John Adams and Tocard,
Thank you both for mentioning Tavel. I read about this area in Rick Steves' book, but I'm unsure if this region has the rose that I enjoy (the very pale pink Provencal style rose like Whispering Angel). I believe the rose from Tavel is darker in color and more robust. I looked on a website that explains the different types of roses, and they distinguish between those from Tavel and Provence...

Tavel rosé is robust, savory, rich, and very dry. Tavel has distinct fruit notes, but with an earthier and nuttier twist.
Provence rosé is the most versatile and classic of rosé wines. This fruity and light wine pairs well with any cuisine and has notes of strawberry and rose petals.

Have you been to wineries in that region that offer the pale pink rose wine? Any recommendations? I plan to tour Chateau d'Esclans (producer of Whispering Angel and many more) and possibly Domaine Mirabeau, which has a lovely sparkling rose. I've read about Château de l’Aumérade also.

I'll also look into your recommendations for Domaine de Mourchon and Chateau Fortia.

We're considering stay in Aix-en-Provence for 2 nights then at a chateau in Gigondas or Sauveterre for 3 nights. I stayed in Arles about 10 years ago and visited Avignon. Back then, I wanted to get out of Avignon as quickly as possible. It felt too big city for me. We'll also have a car, and I read that it's a headache to have a car in Avignon.

Any additional thoughts are appreciated!

@Southam- thank you for the recommendation about Orange. I read about that. Perhaps we'll visit it! Thank you!

We stayed 3 nights in Arles and 2 nights in Avignon. Both are centrally situated, but I preferred Arles as a town. Avignon is probably closer to the southern Rhone region you want to visit. We found wonderful restaurants in Arles, and it is so walkable. We rented an Airbnb.

In Gigondas is a wine tasting shop (shown on one of Rick's videos) where they have over 100 bottles of regional wine for tasting. We also found a shop in ChdPape where you could taste a variety of wines. I would suggest a nice day trip through Orange and then on to Gigondas. You can really see the soil that they talk about when discussing Southern Rhone terroir.

We took a wine tour of the Northern Rhone and thought it was wonderful. Unless you have experience booking your own times at the wineries, you might consider an escorted tour.

Also, I am discovering how much I enjoy Langeudoc wines these days, and there are some wonderful rose wines. Also in Cotes de Nimes.

Sounds like a wonderful trip!

Thank you, Rizell! I have already done the research and coordinated with wineries and have made the reservations, so I think we'll skip the escorted wine tasting this time. One of the wineries made lunch recommendations and offered to arrange the reservation for me, which was very kind.