In the mid-17th century the right-bank district of Côte du Rhône had issued regulations to govern the quality of its wine and in 1737 the king ordered that casks of wine shipped from the nearby river port of Roquemaure, directly on the right bank 12 km north of Avignon on the left bank, should be branded with the letters CDR to introduce a system of protecting its origin.

The rules for its Côte du Rhône thus formed the very early basis of today's nationwide AOC system governed by the INAO.

The name was changed to Côtes du Rhône when the left-bank wines were included in the appellation some hundred years later.

The appellation received full recognition by a High Court decision in 1937, and the rules were revised in 1996 and 2001 to take into account new conditions of production.

Reporter Pierre-Marie Doutrelant revealed that "the growers of Côtes du Rhône planted mourvèdre and syrah, two low-yield grapes that give the wine finesse, strictly for the benefit of government inspectors.

Then, when the inspectors left, they grafted cheap high-yield vines—grenache and carignan—back onto the vines" (Prial) At the generic level, the official AOC Côtes du Rhône region stretches 200 km from Vienne in the north to Avignon in the south and from the foothills of the Massif Central in the west to the fore-slopes of the Vaucluse and Luberon mountains east of the town of Orange.

171 communes in the French departments of Ardèche, Bouches du Rhône, Drôme, Gard, Loire, and Vaucluse are concerned with production from the 83,839 (2008) hectares of vineyard.

[1] Red and rosé wines are made from Grenache noir, Syrah, Cinsault, Carignane, Counoise and Mourvèdre grape varieties.

The great majority of these are cultivated on the eastern side of the Rhône between the river bank near the town of Orange, and the Vaucluse-Luberon chain of mountains.

The reds range in color from deep crimson and ruby to almost purple and are generally full-bodied with rich but smooth tannins, though Lirac and others from the right bank tend to be somewhat lighter.

Condrieu, a septentrional, is one of the rarest white wines in the world and is produced from 100% Viognier – a notoriously difficult grape to vinify.

Year of Production : In general, the year-to-year climate of the region remains fairly constant, although there may be rare occasions of spring frost which may damage the buds, thus reducing the overall yield.

At the most demanding level of distinction, a total of 17 crus are allowed to be recognized by their village name without requiring the mention of Côtes du Rhône on the label.