Winemaker Notes
The four hectares of vines here are rooted deep in granite and planted in 1910. The mineral intensity coaxed out of these low yielding vines exemplify Cornas being powerful and built to last with layer upon layer that will evolve in bottle and glass.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very complex nose of smoke and forest berry fruit with a touch of grilled meat. Extremely dense with enormous fine tannins, but still so bright and energetic. Major concentration at the extremely long, velvety finish, where you feel the wildness that's the signature of this appellation.
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Decanter
Has good weight of fruit, though no huge concentration like in other vintages. Ends on quite firm tannins, but they have a certain suppleness compared to the harsher green tannins elsewhere in Cornas this year. Classic style, with grip and presence that should age with interest, though will always be one for fans of a more ascetic Cornas style. Whole-bunch fermented, from 100-year-old vines grown in Reynard. Aged in used barrels, no new oak. 4,000 bottles made.
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Wine Spectator
A truly stunning Cornas, with all of its elements in lockstep. A ripe well of blackberry and warm cherry starts off creamy and inviting, showing sanguine flickers of juniper, cured meat, salt and camphor ash. A ballast of cast iron gives this its formidable weight and structure, with cedar and smoke playing off the robust finish.
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Vinous
The 2022 Cornas La Geynale impresses with pronounced aromas of crushed violet, orange rind, black cherry, graphite, dried meat, blackberry jam, roasted herbs and a flicker of leather. Full-bodied and deeply concentrated, it's powerfully structured like a skyscraper, yet infused with lifting energy that balances its sheer intensity. Gracefully winding down with a long, savory finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, mulberries, cherries, leather, graphite, and spice notes all emerge from the 2022 Cornas La Geynale. It's more focused, firm, and tannic on the palate, with medium to full-bodied richness and great length. While showing plenty of tannins, this interesting effort has beautiful purity and depth.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Cornas La Geynale, the only cuvée at this address fermented with 100% whole clusters, wafts from the glass with aromas of violet, iris, licorice and spices mingled with carnal/animal-like notes. Medium to full-bodied, dense and concentrated, it's framed by structured tannins, a dry, robust mid-palate and a long, meaty and saline finish. Notably, it is the most overtly tannic wine in the range this year, and the presence of phenols likely enhances its robustness. Despite these challenges, the wine’s telluric character is unmistakably present.
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.