Courbis Cornas La Sabarotte 2019
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Courbis’ 1.5 hectare Cornas La Sabarotte vineyard is considered to be among the very best sites of the appellation. It has extremely old, low yielding vines; most planted in 1947 but some are even older. The soil is a thin granite-limestone over protruding rocks. The site is perfectly exposed to the south-east. La Sabarotte sees 4 weeks of vatting to extract as much color and flavor as possible. It is aged in 100% new oak casks for 16 months and undergoes its malolactic fermentation in cask. La Sabarotte is Courbis’ most dramatic Cornas, showing saturated black-purple in color with layers of chewy, ripe, sweet fruit with black olive and berry, tar and mineral notes.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2019 Cornas La Sabarotte is a candidate for the wine of the vintage in Cornas, and it’s about as thrilling as they come. Much riper and sexier, it reminds me of a great Hermitage from the Meal lieu-dit and has lots of cassis and blackberry fruits, notes of violets, ground pepper, iron, and some gamey meat, full-bodied richness, velvety tannins, and an awesome finish.
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Wine Spectator
This packs lots of energy, with a core of red currant, blackberry and damson plum notes that are bristling with violet, savory, white pepper and olive accents. The long finish has mouthwatering cut as the chalky spine holds everything together. Best from 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Bottled in June 2021, the 2019 Cornas la Sabarotte delivers huge doses of pristine blueberry and cherry fruit despite being aged in a combination of new and one-year-old barrels. It's full-bodied, rich and tannic but supple, with a long, lively finish. Stylistically, it nicely epitomizes what consumers have come to expect from the Courbis family. Best After 2025
Other Vintages
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All the grapes are harvested by hand and yields are kept to an average of 30 hl/ha. The fruit is 100% destemmed and the maceration period for the Syrahs lasts between two and three weeks. The wines mature in oak casks which are new or up to three years old. The red wines are fined with egg whites but not filtered and are bottled between two and three years of the harvest.
The wines of the Courbis estate are some of the most compelling examples of St. Joseph and Cornas being made today. The Courbis brothers have combined their long family experience with a modern style and this has earned them international recognition. Robert Parker sums it up in his book on Rhone wines: “Courbis is a name to watch in the Northern Rhone.” Courbis wines regularly receive rave reviews in Wine Spectator, International Wine Cellar, The Wine Advocate and Revue du Vin de France.
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.