Cornas

Nicolas destemmed half the crop in 2016 and selected carefully, attentive to the possible impact of prolonged spring rainfall. Yields were reduced therefore, but there was no hail and no frost. Dense and dark, the wine has a hint of the sauvage behind the fruit, an edge which will guarantee the potential for lengthy cellaring and a fascinating evolution, at the culmination of which it should be relished with a game bird. Drink 2020-2025.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer

The decomposed granite slopes of Les Mazards, rather alarmingly known locally as ‘gore’, are the source of this famous cuvée. Twenty-five percent of stems are added to the vat for a cuvaison of four weeks, then 24 months in cask, 20 percent of which are new. There is no Vieilles Fontaines this year, so all the grapes have gone into the Vieilles Vignes, which repays the compliment and is suitably magisterial and complex. Fresh and yet imperiously powerful, this wine will be one for the long, longer and longest terms.
Simon Field MW - Rhône Buyer

Albéric Mazoyer, the charismatic sidekick to Alain Voge, is positive about 2013: there was no hail in Cornas and the late growing cycle was actually beneficial in this, the warmest of the northern enclaves, concentrating flavour but eschewing excess of any kind. The results are as spectacular as the volumes are scant.

Vertiginously perched above the village of Cornas the lieu-dit of ‘Les Eygats’ is a slab of south-east facing granite. Aged for fourteen months in demi-muid, the youthful wine is marked by a nose of raspberry and jambon cru, its sweet and savoury tension matched on the palate where sour cherries provide the dominant note, violets and pot pourri lending support.
Drink 2018-2024.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer

The 2014 vintage left the blocks with great speed, energised by a rainy winter which had topped up water reserves, and then by a dry and exceptionally mild spring. The pace calmed down thereafter, and thoughts of precocity eventually gave way to a relatively late harvest. Challenges were imposed by a mid-season which was by turns rainy and unseasonably cool, with rot a far from negligible danger and the somewhat unusual prospect of September being the warmest month of the year.

Not quite an Indian Summer, in point of fact, but warm enough to ensure timely ripening and a dry harvest. The whites have poise and finely etched fruit and the reds are balanced and approachable. Winemaker Damien Brisset, whilst acknowledging the challenges of the vintage, is more than pleased with the results. Careful to avoid over-extraction, he has allowed each commune and each lieu-dit to impose its personality on its wines and the results are impressive indeed.

The steep vines here are located in Patou, Les Mazards and Saumon and their age runs the gamut from old-ish (35 years) to very old indeed (100 years). The grapes are mainly destemmed and the wine is a superb illustration of all that is great in Cornas; austere, yet generous, full-bodied and tannic, yet with a latent sweetness which will come to the fore over a number of years and provide a perfect contrast to burgeoning savoury characteristics.
Simon Field MW - Rhône Buyer

It makes a nice change to state that a winery is far from state-of-the-art; M Paris makes wine in the chaotic splendour behind a large but only half-built house in the backstreets of Cornas; so far, so unpromising. His wines, however, are sublime and it should come as no surprise that he has now joined the first rank of Cornas producers. This is more than appropriate and very good news for us, as we bought the wines from his Geynale vineyard when it was owned by his uncle Robert Michel, and have always considered it to be among the very best plots in the village. The 2013 Cornas Granit 60 Vielles Vignes is serious stuff. Inky colored and loaded with cassis, black raspberry, violets and licorice, it has beautiful acidity in its full-bodied, ripe, polished style. It has rock-solid mid-palate concentrated, and terrific length, so give it a handful of years in the cellar and drink bottles through 2025. Like all of Paris’s Cornas releases, it sees only older barrels.
Jeb Dunnuck - Wine Advocate Issue#216 Dec 2014

Yves’ passion and energy is well-known and it was warming to see his reaction to our own enthusiasm for this cuvée, which was one we had not planned to buy. Like the best Cornas, it has a ‘lift’ to it with plenty of fresh, generous fruit. Easy on the ‘abv’ too, a really fine example of a Cornas that will develop very well mid-term.
Tom Cave - Cellar Plan Manager 

The vines for this wine are located mainly in the lieus-dits of Chaillot and Les Reynards. The wine is fermented in stainless steel and then matured in cask for 10months. The 2010 is deep of colour, with a nose of smoked raspberry and peat, with cloves and violets providing an aromatic back-drop. The tannins are relatively tame, and the finish as warm as a Mediterranean evening.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer, February 2012

2010 marks a spectacular return to form for this excellent Domaine which is based in St Peray and which has been no stranger to BBR over the years. . From the more traditional end of the spectrum, which in terms of Cornas means wines of incalculable gravitas, the Voge wines are now vinified by Chapoutier alumnus, Albert Mazoyers, and have never been better...

The Patou vineyards have yielded a ripe and warmly textured wine, with notes of cassis, eucalypt and mocha evidenced. Slight high-toned, the core of the wine is plump and reassuring.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer

Located in the shadows of the spire of the village’s impressive church, Domaine Dumien-Serrette is unassuming and understated, unlike the wines of course, which glory in ripeness and fruit. Gilbert Serrette blends from barrique and larger vats, filled at this stage with the fruits that are distinguished only by whether or not their vines were located en coteau or en demi-coteau. He cites 2011 as an easier and less rustic vintage than 2010; the chronology and tempo of its evolution set in train by a rapid harvest on 14^th and 15^th September.

Granit 60 is a helpful name to be sure as it describes both the soil type and the gradient of the Parisian vineyard. The wine impresses with its nose of bay, black olives and dark fruit. It seems more energetic than its forebears, with sweet hedgerow myrtle fruit and graphite tannins.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer

The youthful nephew of Berry Bros. & Rudd favourite Robert Michel, who is now retired, is taking on something of an eminence grise persona himself these days, running the Syndicate of Cornas with great skill. It helps to have such fine vineyards of course, many of them inherited. 2011 he views as a less tannic but more aromatic vintage than 2010, to his liking in other words, as he often states that aromatic harmony is the key to a great Cornas.

The Emperor Charlemagne was, apparently, a devotee of the wine from Cornas. Referring to it, for obvious reasons, as vin noir, this example from 100-year-old vines borrows this soubriquet. The resulting wine is suitably saturnine in appearance and then has intense high velocity sweetness in the mouth. Sauvage, herbal with hitherto overwhelming tannins, this is one for the long, longer, longest terms and will eventually come into its own with gibier and/or strong cheese.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer

Stéphane and Sandrine have built what I think a Valence Estate Agent would describe as a ‘dream house’ in the steep Cornas hillside behind St Peray. An unfeasible amount of glass ensures that the views of the serpentine Rhône are spectacular indeed; let us hope that window taxes have been abolished in this part of the Ardèche. Behind the property lies the eponymous tunnel, a former railway track long since abandoned, but now destined for summer parties and receptions. Stéphane is pleased with his 2011 wines; he praises their aromatic harmony and the quality of the fruit.

The youthful nephew of Berry Bros. & Rudd favourite Robert Michel, who is now retired, is taking on something of an eminence grise persona himself these days, running the Syndicate of Cornas with great skill. It helps to have such fine vineyards of course, many of them inherited. The 2011 vintage he views as less tannic but more aromatic than 2010, to his liking in other words, as he often states that aromatic harmony is the key to a great Cornas.

The famous Geynale site is located immediately above the village in the Reynards commune, its vines chiselled into unadulterated granite, dating from 1910. Dark fruit and massive, monolithic tannins hold sway and will do so for quite some time. Then the sweet and the savoury will start to do battle.

A streamlined Cornas, with tension as well as a wealth of fine fruit – nothing at all overdone or out of kilter like some wines from this area which can be just too dense. South facing vines keeping their cool due to their high altitude seems to be the trick – a fine Cornas from one of Hermitage’s lesser-known lights and terrific value too.
Tom Cave, Cellar Plan Manager

From the named lieu-dit to the north of the named village, this is a worthy illustration of both the skill of the winemaker and the renaissance of Cornas in general. Herbal and rich, with hints of jambon cru and liqueur-steeped cherry, Les Eygats marries sweet and savoury, Carnival and Lent, with effortless aplomb.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer

Ferraton is owned by Chapoutier, but run as an autonomous entity. For a long time it seemed to underperform, almost as if shocked in the headlights of the energetic charisma of its benefactor. The potential of the vineyards, some of which are located on the very best sites on the Hill of Hermitage, has never been disputed. Now, with Bordelais winemaker Damien Brisset firmly in control, one begins to see, at last, the realisation of potential. I am pleased to have ‘stuck with’ them over the years, as the maturing vintages seldom fail to please and the quality of the current vintage gets better and better. 

From vines planted in 1910, this is the stuff of legend. Unperturbed by the trying conditions, M. Michel simply kept the vats cool and ensured that the pH levels stayed beneath 4. The result is dense, with powerful but ripe tannins which will repay cellaring over the longer term.

Aged for 20 months and the fruit of suitably old vines, mainly from the lieux-dits of Mazard and La Côte, this is an outstanding wine. Traditional in its saturnine flavour profile, autumnal and profound, yet forward-looking in its structure; its architectural integrity presages a more than satisfactory evolution. Drink 2022-2030+.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer