Most white northern Rhone is a blend of Marsanne and Roussanne in proportions ranging from sixty-forty to ninety-ten. Marsanne provides body, weight, and a glycerol mouthfeel. Roussanne provides aromatics, acidity, and aging potential. Together they make a white wine with weight and lift that neither grape produces alone.
The proportions
Hermitage Blanc tends toward Marsanne-dominant, often eighty percent or more. Crozes-Hermitage Blanc tends toward fifty-fifty. Saint-Joseph Blanc varies producer to producer. The Southern California grower we work with blends roughly seventy Marsanne to thirty Roussanne, which produces a wine that drinks well young but holds up for a decade in bottle.
Tasting note
Medium gold. White peach, pear, a soft note of honey, and the kind of body that carries braised meats and root-vegetable cooking. The wine is one of the more food-friendly whites in our rotation. It pours through a long meal without fatiguing the palate.
Why we like the blend
Most California whites are mono-varietal. The blend tradition of the northern Rhone is rare in California outside of a small Rhone Ranger movement that peaked in the 1990s and has been quietly consolidating since. The wines that result from a thoughtful Marsanne-Roussanne blend are some of the most interesting California whites we have access to.