Winemaker Notes
Patou is the top site south of the village of Cornas with decomposed granite and a rich soil that gives supple tannins and perfumed wines. This pure Syrah wine showcases the true soul of Cornas: deeply colored, robustly structured, endlessly satisfying. Black and purple fruits mix with silky tannins and hints of licorice and soy.
Ideal pairings for this wine includes grilled pork sausages, game meat in red wine sauce, and roast lamb.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from pure granite soils of the Patou lieu-dit, the 2019 Cornas Patou is another brilliant wine in the making from this small family estate. Revealing a dense purple hue as well as awesome black and blue fruits, ground pepper, beef blood, and spring flower-like aromatics, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a deep, layered mid-palate, building yet ripe tannins, and a monster of a finish. It might need a decade to hit maturity, but it’s a phenomenal Cornas that will evolve for 20-30 years.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This inky pre-bottling sample of Dumien-Serette's 2019 Cornas Patou is certainly impressive. Plummy, cassis-laden aromas lead the way accompanied by hints of wild herbs and crushed stone. Full-bodied, concentrated, tannic and even a little austere, it will require cellaring but should be a beauty in about five years' time.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Wine Spectator
Ripe, juicy and well built, with a solid core of bramble-edged cassis, bitter plum and blackberry fruit flavors enlivened with sweet tapenade and fresh bay notes. The long, chalky spine is well imbedded through the finish, adding length and cut. Best from 2024.
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.