Winemaker Notes
This wine displays an intense garnet red color and, in its youth, offers pronounced blackcurrant aromas that gradually evolve into subtle hints of pepper and licorice. The palate is structured, showcasing the strongly defined flavors characteristic of this terroir. It pairs well with mixed grills, wild mushrooms, and spicy game stews, and requires at least three years of cellaring to reveal its full complexity, with longer-aged bottles benefiting from decanting before serving.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Inky ruby. Assertive, smoke-accented aromas of ripe black and blue fruits, candied flowers, olive and exotic spices show excellent clarity and mineral lift. Sweet, pliant and lush on the palate, offering concentrated blackberry, cherry liqueur, smoky bacon and violet pastille flavors that show a peppery note on the back half. The impressively long, youthfully tannic finish shows fine detail and leaves behind repeating smoke and floral notes.
Barrel Sample: 94-95 -
Wine Spectator
Dark and winey, with a well of steeped plum and smoked blackberry compote flavors layered with singed herb and vanilla-tinged cedar. The silky texture is backed up with some acid verve and cast iron mineral intensity. A modern-styled, attractive Cornas that shows good balance and tension. Drink now through 2035. 1,083 cases made, 97 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.