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Côtes du Rhône announces new Cru
Laudun in the Southern Rhône has been promoted to Cru status, making it the 18th Cru of the Côtes du Rhône.
Laudun, located north of Lirac on the west bank of the Rhône river, has become the first village to be promoted to Cru status in nine years.
A Cru is a top tier appellation in the Rhône. The region currently has eight Crus in the Northern Rhône and, thanks to the latest promotion, 10 in the southern Rhône.
The wines of Laudun have been classified as Côtes du Rhône Villages with geographical designation since 1967 and now join the family of Crus. Laudun obtained the recognition of the INAO (National Institute for Origin and Quality) as a communal appellation this Wednesday 11 September 2024. Laudun winegrowers filed for accession to Appellation Locale Laudun with the INAO in 2013.
The promotion follows decades of lobbying by local winegrowers to have Laudun recognised as an official AOC. Other Crus include Beaumes-de-Venise, Cairanne, Château-Grillet, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Condrieu, Cornas, Côte-Rôtie, Crozes-Hermitage, Gigondas, Hermitage, Lirac, Rasteau, Saint-Joseph, Saint-Péray, Tavel, Vacqueyras and Vinsobre.
White wines are important in Laudun, making up 30% of total production. Laudun has a total of 591 hectares of vineyard area, and produced 22,390 hectolitres of wine in 2023.
The last promotion to Côtes du Rhône Cru was Cairanne in 2015.
Gigondas, in the north of Vaucluse, had its AOC extended to white wines from the 2023 vintage, after an unanimous vote in favour of the request. The appellation celebrated the 50th anniversary of its accession to cru status in 2021.
The process of extending the AOC Gigondas to white wines began 11 years ago. In 2011, the Defence and Management Organisation (ODG) of Gigondas set up a working group made up of winegrowers and merchants to study the production of white wines, and experiments were made from white grapes grown in different areas of the appellation. Read more here.
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