Winemaker Notes
Almost all of the vines at Domaine Voge are 50+ years old, meaning that virtually all of Voge's production is labelled Vieilles Vignes. Steeply sloping like Côte Rôtie and facing south and east, the terroir of Cornas is dense granitic schist rather than mica-based as in Côte Rôtie, giving the wines a more subtle elegance in the mouth and a bit more high-toned purple fruit in flavor.
"Produced from 100 plus-year Syrah vines planted on pure granite, the 2003 Cornas Vieilles Fontaines is a candidate for Cornas of the vintage. While extremely backward and more austere than the Vieilles Vignes cuvee, it possesses remarkable freshness and vigor as well as a dense ruby/purple color, and an extraordinary nose of acacia flowers, melted licorice, plums, blackberries, and truffles. The wine is deep, full-bodied, relatively high in tannin, and exceptionally lively and well-defined. Give it 3-5 years of bottle age, and consume it over the following 15 or more years. It is a potential legend in the making."
-Wine Advocate
Professional Ratings
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.