Winemaker Notes
This is Alain Voge's classic wine. The oldest of the Domaine's wines, it was created during the 1970s to highlight the long-standing family vineyard. Vines for this wine are located in the heart of the appellation, facing those we first replanted. Les Vieilles Vignes is a wine that reflects their history winemaking know how.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Already bottled, the 2021 Cornas Les Vieilles Vignes is a tiny production cuvée that comes from a single parcel of very old vines. It's more inward and reserved, with beautiful darker, almost blue fruits as well as some gamey meats, liquid violets, ground pepper, and obvious mineral-like aromas and flavors. Concentrated, medium to full-bodied, and beautifully balanced on the palate, it plays in the fresher, elegant style of the vintage yet has plenty of mid-palate depth, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It should benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and evolve gracefully over the following 10-15 years. It's impressive.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant nose of steeped cherry and cassis is layered with dried bay leaf and rosemary, propped up by a wall of iron and iodine mineral. A leaner style in line with the vintage, this is sanguine and complex, with a lashing of salt. Best from 2025 through 2032.
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.