Winemaker Notes
The color is an intense garnet red. In its youth, this wine has strong blackcurrant aromas. With time, the fruit aromas gradually fade, giving the way to hints of pepper and licorice. The palate is structured and has the strongly-defined flavors that are typical from this "terroir."
Pair this wine with mixed grills such as wild mushrooms and spicy stews made with game. This wine needs at least three years of cellaring before it can open up its complexity. If kept for longer, the wine should be decanted before serving.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Powerful, mineral- and spice-accented aromas of ripe black/blue fruits, candied flowers, olive and allspice. Supple and energetic on the palate, offering bitter cherry, blueberry and fruitcake flavors that tighten up slowly with air and show fine delineation. The cherry note drives a long, spicy finish that's given shape by fine-grained, even tannins. There's a quite graceful quality here that defies the old stereotype of Cornas being necessarily rustic.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Wine & Spirits
Lush violet scents and plush, velvety tannins surround juicy plum fruit in this dark Cornas. There’s an earthy savor at the base of the fruit that lends the wine a sense of gravitas, but what makes the wine stand out is its lift and translucence. It’s easily enjoyable right now, though its structure and staying power predict that it will age well for a decade or longer.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The full-bodied 2019 Cornas Chante Perdrix is atypically powerful and intense, yet it still retains the cuvee's essentially approachable character. Supple and fleshy, loaded with red plum, cassis and blackberry fruit, it finishes long, with hints of thyme. Drink it over the next 15 years. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. Best After 2022
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Wine Spectator
A core of juicy red currant and bitter plum pâte de fruit flavors is brought into nice focus by a racy, chalk-edged structure and an iron spine, while subtle savory and dark olive accents dart in the background.
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Decanter
Intense on the nose, a touch of char and cola. Very full-bodied, but there is some inner freshness and acidity. Tannins are plentiful, very ripe. It's very bold and modern, very ripe. Good for the vintage.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Ripe red and black fruits, smoked meat, bacon fat, and assorted spicy notes all emerge from the 2019 Cornas Chante Perdrix, a ripe, medium-bodied, accessible Cornas offering ripe tannins, nicely integrated acidity, and the sunny, ripe style of the vintage.
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James Suckling
A rich and meaty Cornas with a lot of flesh and body, which is typical for this appellation in this vintage. The rather polished tannins have been well crafted and hold this big volume together though the long, velvety finish. But there is slight warmth at the end. From high altitude vineyards.
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.