Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
In the same ballpark, the 2012 Cornas La Sabarotte (aged 16-18 months in 100% new French oak) offers ample graphite, creme de cassis, licorice and crushed flower notes, with loads of textbook Cornas meatiness in the background. It too is a medium to full-bodied, fresh, vibrant, yet seriously concentrated effort that shows the vintage beautifully. Give it a couple years in the cellar and enjoy it over the following 10-12 years or so. Range: 93-95
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Wine Spectator
Shows lovely purity, with a beam of cherry and damson plum preserves lined with iron and sanguine notes, carried by a gently savory edge on the finish. Offers good length, cut and poise through the finish. Drink now through 2022.
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.