Winemaker Notes
Pair with mixed grills, wild mushrooms and game (which can be served with spicy sauces). This wine needs at least 3 years cellaring before it can open up its complexity. If kept for longer than this, the wine should be decanted before serving.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Offers a delicious core of gently mulled blueberry, blackberry and black currant fruit that is matched by a mix of floral, mineral and singed spice notes throughout. The long chalky spine is well-buried on the finish, letting all the elements play out suavely through the finish. Best from 2021 through 2036.
-
Wine & Spirits
This is pulled from a selection of parcels that Jacques Grange and Claire Darnaud-McKerrow have been transitioning to organic farming since 2013. Their latest vintage is at once firm and soaring. The tannins define it, fine-textured but abundant, providing the tight structural integrity for the wine; they also provide direction for the juicy black-plum flavors, which power ahead, picking up notes of licorice and espresso beans, herbs and dark, rich earth along the way. That energy suggests there’s plenty more to come with time; tuck it away for at least five years.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Moving to the reds and starting with the single Cornas release, the 2015 Cornas Chante Perdrix comes from three terroirs: Reynard, Champelrose and St. Romain, all of which are granite. It was completely destemmed and aged in a mix of stainless steel and barrels. Crème de cassis, toasted spice, barrique and hints of charcoal give way to a rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully fresh and focused red that has present, yet ripe tannin. It will keep for 10-15 years.
Range:90-92 -
James Suckling
Moody dark plums, blackberries and some stony elements. This is quite fruit-focused. The palate has a succulent, open-knit red plum and raspberry core. Drink now.
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.