The Rhône’s most expensive dry whites

Having ushered in Autumn with some of Northern Italy’s foremost brands, our Listed section continues its whirlwind tour of the world’s great wine regions in the Rhône. Home to some of France’s most illustrious producers, the Rhône tends to garner the most attention for its reds. However, its whites are well worth a mention too, and don’t require quite the same budget. Here we look at the region’s five most expensive dry whites.

Interestingly, all five wines are from the Northern Rhône, with Hermitage home to four of them. M. Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc L’Ermite tops the table. The first of two wines from Michel Chapoutier, at £233 per bottle it is by far the most expensive of the five. It also outperforms the others in the Quality category – with an outstanding average score of 961.

Château Grillet is the only wine of the five not produced in Hermitage. This 100% Viognier from the eponymous monopole (one of only a handful of single-estate appellations in France – can you name the others?) commands an average price of £134. It enjoys by far the best Economics score of the group (824), thanks to exceptional short-term price performance – its price having risen 22% over the past six months.

Snapping at its heels is similarly priced Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc. It achieves an average Quality score of 954, just six points behind that of its red counterpart. It is also the only Buzz Brand in the group, and enjoys the best Brand score (918).

Around the £120 mark, E. Guigal Ermitage Ex Voto Blanc and M. Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc De l’Orée fill the fourth and fifth spots. Underlining the outstanding quality of the group, they both achieve scores of over 900 in the category, ranking them amongst the very strongest on Wine Lister.

If we compare the quality to price ratio of these five whites and the Rhône’s five most expensive red wines, the whites look good value. Whilst the reds achieve a slightly better average Quality score (957 vs 919), you pay a significant premium for them – their average price is over 4.5 times higher than that of the whites (£671 vs £147).