Winemaker Notes
Pair with mixed grills, wild mushrooms and game (which can be served with spicy sauces).
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Tightly focused, with an iron spine running throughout, giving the core of raspberry, red currant and bitter plum fruit a vibrating energy. White pepper, rosemary and olive notes fill in on the finish. Shows lovely range and drive.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The only Cornas release in this stacked lineup is the 2014 Cornas Chante Perdrix (100% Syrah from the Reynard, Champelrose and St. Romain lieux-dits), which has lots of spice and gamey notions, with ample fruit, crushed rock-like minerality, medium to full body and ripe tannin. It shows the more meaty, gamey side of the appellation and has a great finish.
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.