Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A dense, layered and well-built Cornas with aromas of cassis, plums, lychees, gunpowder and dried flowers. It's medium-bodied with fine, firm tannins. So much texture with a freshness at the center. Vivid core of berries with a solid frame of tannins coating the palate. It's harmonious and flavorful, with a lift of pepper. Impressive concentration for the vintage.
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Vinous
Saturated magenta. Expansive aromas of black and blue fruits, licorice, olive and black pepper show fine clarity and building florality. Smoky and energetic in the mouth, offering juicy blackberry, cherry and baking spice flavors that slowly deepen through the back half. Becomes sweeter on the long, focused finish, which features grippy tannins and lingering floral and exotic spice notes.
Barrel Sample: 94-95 -
Jeb Dunnuck
I was able to taste a few lots destined for the 2021 Cornas Renaissance, and it appears to be a forward, charming wine with plenty of ripe fruit, medium body, and supple tannins. There's plenty of classic Clape character here, and it should be an outstanding Cornas.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
Wine Spectator
Perfumed cherry and spices are textured in this graceful version. Starts off glossy, but tannins take hold, giving a firm shape and focused finish. Black pepper, mocha and violet chime in, along with a sanguine thread of bacon fat and apple wood smoke. Alluring. Best from 2026 through 2040. 100 cases imported.
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.