Sour name sounds so familiar. The Coteaux-du-Lyonnais, you think you’ve heard it a thousand times. First of all, the term “slope”, which sounds obvious, the ideal place where vines grow. Coteaux-du-layon, Coteaux-Burgundians, Coteaux-d’Aix-en-Provence, we find hillsides in all the wine-growing regions of France. As for the adjective “Lyonnais”, it is so closely linked to gastronomy that it does not stand out any more. From cork to sausage, just add the Lyon name and everything immediately becomes more delicious.
Coteaux-du-Lyonnais, therefore, is an appellation that everyone can locate and claim to know, without ever having tasted it. Because unless you are local or have connections with this vineyard, there is little chance that you have already uncorked a bottle from one of the nineteen producers of this small AOC. Yes, only eighteen wine estates and a cooperative cellar bring this small crossroads of vines to life: 180 discreet hectares planted (some Languedoc estates are larger), while the appellation area covers double that. And that it could, in theory, expand further if the need arose. But for now, we are far from it.
As I write these lines, I am still wondering: do the Coteaux-du-Lyonnais symbolize the wine-growing future of France… or its past? A bit of both probably. Its history is 2,000 years old. The discovery of a Gallo-Roman wine villa in Saint-Laurent-d’Agny (Rhône), in 2008, attests to the cultivation of vines in the Lyon region since that time, supported by written mentions from 45 BC. C. During the French Revolution, the hills of Lyonnais were the main wine-growing area of the Rhône department. In 1938, they officially separated from the Beaujolais vineyard. This independence will, unfortunately, not allow them to benefit from the growing popularity of their neighbor. Production decreases. Quality, on the other hand, progressed, and the vines gained their AOC in 1984. The Coteaux-du-Lyonnais appellation is therefore 40 years old this year. Time to take stock.
A missed appointment
The first observation that strikes you is that of a missed appointment. This vineyard, which borders the entire west of the capital of Gaul, from the Monts d’Or to the A47 motorway, which is located less than twenty minutes from the center of Lyon, in short, this viscerally Lyonnais wine does not was not favored by local restaurants, who preferred Beaujolais, although located 50 kilometers further north. As unthinkable as it may seem, the Coteaux-du-Lyonnais are absent from Lyon’s gastronomy.
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