Southern French red is a catchall category that covers many different types of wines from the south of France. Included in this are red wines from Provence, Languedoc-Roussilon and the Rhone Valley. Most of these wines are made from Rhone varieties such as Grenache, Mourvedre, Syrah and Carignan and while may of them are moderately priced wines for short term-drinking, as with a Provence red or a Cotes-du-Rhone, there are some red wines from the southern of France, such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape that are medium-full to full bodied and crafted to drink well for more than a decade.

These southern French reds work with a variety of foods, such as casserole for the lighter versions, all the way to lamb shank or wild game for the more robust wines.