Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There were only two cuvees produced, with no Les Vieilles Fontaines. The 2011 Cornas Les Chailles is totally thrilling and offers palate saturating liquid violets, sweet blackberry, cassis, mint and underbrush qualities to go with a medium to full-bodied, pure and seamless personality. Aged 18 months in neutral oak, this beauty is still youthfully primary, so give it another 2-3 years and enjoy it over the following decade.
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Wine Spectator
Offers a racy feel, with iron-bolted red currant, bitter cherry, bay leaf, pepper, violet and tobacco notes coursing along. Taut and tense through the finish, where the pepper and sanguine accents leave a mouthwatering feel. Should age wonderfully.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Distinguished as a fine Syrah producing zone since the 18th century, Cornas, like Cote Rotie, is made up of vineyards covering steep and hard-to-work, granite terraces. As a result the region’s wines fell out of favor during the mid 20th century when the global market was more focused on bulk wines and vineyards that yielded high quantities. It wasn’t until the 1980s when a group of energetic young winemakers reestablished the integrity of these precipitous terraces and also began making an ultra-modern style of Syrah. The new style didn’t need a decade before it was drinkable and could reach the consumer faster than the region’s traditional wines. Given the new quality coming out of the zone, its popularity once again soared and today a good Cornas can easily challenge many of those from Hermitage. Characteristics of Syrah from Cornas include teeth-staining flavors of blackberry jam, plum, pepper, violets, smoked game, charcoal, chalk dust and smoke.