The Rhône Valley vineyard is a French vineyard extending from Vienne in the north to Avignon in the south, on both sides of the Rhône, over a total of 1317 communes. It is the second largest vineyard in France in terms of the volume of production of wines with a registered designation of origin, after Bordeaux. It covers six departments: Rhône, Loire, Ardèche and Gard, on the right bank of the Rhône, Drôme and Vaucluse, on the left bank. These departments are part of the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
From north to south, this vineyard is divided into two groups of appellations:
on the one hand, the northern Rhône valley, from Vienne to Livron-sur-Drôme (Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage, etc.);
on the other hand, the southern Rhône valley, from Montélimar to Avignon (appellations grignan-les-adhémar, châteauneuf-du-pape, Gigondas, Beaumes-de-venise muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, vacqueyras, etc.)
Added to this are the valleys of the tributaries of the Rhône, first that of the Drôme which forms the Diois (appellations clairette de Die, crémant de Die, coteaux-de-die and châtillon-en-diois), then that between Mont Ventoux and the right bank of the Calavon (appellation ventoux), the one between the left bank of the Calavon and the right bank of the Basse-Durance, including the Luberon massif (Luberon appellation) and finally a part of the Gard (costières-de-nîmes and clairette de Bellegarde appellations).