Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Even better is the 2009 Cornas Les Vieilles Fontaines. One of the most monumental Cornas wines I have ever tasted, it boasts a blacker color as well as sumptuous notes of melted asphalt, black truffles, smoked game, huge quantities of blackberry and cassis liqueur, and hints of lard, creosote and incense. This spectacular Cornas is super-tannic with low acidity, so give it 8-10 years of cellaring and drink it over the following three decades. It is a modern day legend from Cornas.
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Wine Spectator
This red boasts terrific intensity and vivacity, as mouthwatering acidity from start to finish drives the pastis, sweet tapenade, blackberry coulis and freshly crushed plum notes. The long, tobacco- and bay leaf tinged finish has a nice chalky note underneath. Built for the cellar.
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.