The wines > Cornas

  • ALAIN VERSET

    LVT 2007 r Traditional, hearty Cornas, that can hit the mark. Alain Verset is the son of the late Louis Verset, a confirmed part of the Cornas fabric. He works the family vineyard at the weekends, and in a local factory during the week. Yields could be lower, winemaking more precise.

  • ALAIN VOGE

    LVT 2008 r 2007 wh Since 2004, Alain Voge has been in a partnership with Albéric Mazoyer, an Ardechois man who used to work at Chapoutier as a vineyard and winemaking advisor. Alain has worked all his life at Cornas since his teenage years and is now in his mid-sixties. There have always been many different wines at this domaine, with various versions based on vineyard ages and oaking levels. The best two, the Cornas Vieilles Vignes and the Cornas Les Vieilles Fontaines, are very good - full, with a good core of sweet fruit and tannic persistence. They drink notably well around 5 to 10 years old. The St-Péray also comes in oaked and non-oak styles, and there is a little sparkling St-Péray as well. A red St-Joseph was first produced in 2005 from a rented site near Cornas. At times, the oak can be intrusive if the wines are drunk too young.

  • AUGUSTE and PIERRE CLAPE

    LVT 2008 r 2007 wh STGT domaine - the reference point. Prime vineyards, unhurried winemaking. The wines show the depth and energy of Cornas` granite base, their lithe fruit and sinewed tannins blending only after some years. The best years can live for 30 years or more. There is an old vine Marsanne St-Péray, vat only handling, very consistent and can be drunk over 6-8 years. There are good Côtes du Rhône red and white, have character, the white being discontinued after 2007.

  • BERNARD BLACHON

    LVT 2005 r

  • BERNARD MAURICE

    A vigneron at the weekend on the old family plot. Traditional style.

  • DOMAINE DE ROCHEPERTUIS, JEAN LIONNET

    Jean Lionnet's last vintage was 2005, after which his rental agreement with the Barret family lapsed, and he took his retirement. He was an early modernist at Cornas, happy to use new or young oak and for his crop to be destemmed. The reds were always well cast, with clear fruit, and the top wine, the Domaine de Rochepertuis Cornas, carried sound stuffing. Its local roots emerged with time. Jean's St-Péray was also always very cleanly made, a wine that could live for up to 8 years or so in the best vintages. Salut, Jean!

  • DOMAINE LIONNET

    LVT 2007 r A traditional Cornas domaine with some STGT qualities. Organic since 2007. Daughter Corinne is encouraging greater bottling and small tidy-ups are occurring in the cellar - glassing the interior of the vats, for instance. Father Pierre Lionnet now sells his wine from Les Mazards in bulk. Whole bunch fermentation, no yeasts - leave-alone winemaking - mean the wine is full with apparent tannins when young. It is a genuine drop of country wine. The first vintage for Corinne and Ludovic was 2003.

  • DUMIEN-SERRETTE

    LVT 2007 r Good, unpretentious, traditional Cornas from the southern zone. This means it is a softer wine than those from the north and carries less intensity of flavour than those from the prime central vineyards. Very consistent from one year to the next. Some vintages show definite STGT characteristics. In 2006, half the crop was destemmed, in 2007 80%, as an oenologue adviser has been hired - Jean-Etienne Guibert, who also looks after the Durand brothers and Stéphan Chaboud. Expect more polish in the fruit.

  • ELIE BANCEL

    LVT 2004 r Part bottled, part sold in bulk.

  • FRANCK BALTHAZAR

    LVT 2008 r An STGT domaine. The wines express their place faithfully with tender winemaking in support. Old vine fruit is a key contributor. A classic example of Cornas that carries clear fruit and early tannins requiring 3-4 years to settle. There are four bottlings each vintage, so cask ageing time can vary.

  • GHISLAINE FUMAT

    LVT 2005 The Fumats made their last Cornas in 2005. This veteran couple, André and Ghislaine Fumat, also grow fruit and vegetables. The wine can be true Cornas in good vintages. Half the vineyard has been sold, half has been rented out to Stéphan Chaboud at Saint-Péray.

  • GUILLAUME GILLES

    LVT 2008 r A young man who worked chez Robert Michel and Jean-Louis Chave from 2000 to 2004. He gained an extra 2 hectares in early 2007, and shows promise. The wines are traditional, cleanly made and good punch lies at their heart.

  • JACQUES LEMENICIER

    LVT 2009 r 2009 wh Jacques Lemenicier makes authentic local Cornas with elegance accentuated. Usually up to half the wine is sold in bulk to local merchants. From 2006 he has made a “superior” Cornas from his core Pigeonnier vineyard, which receives some new oak. There are two St-Pérays, one vat fermented, the other oaked – the latter goes best with food.

  • JEAN-LUC COLOMBO

    LVT 2008 r wh The Wandering Minstrel of Cornas. Anne Colombo vinifies the wines, and the touch is lighter than in the past - less new oak as well. The whites are now interesting, refined. There is a wide négociant range from purchased wines from both Northern and Southern Rhône.

  • JEROME DESPESSE

    LVT 2008 r Very promising young grower: if only he had more vineyards. Jerome is in his twenties, and works the family plots at the weekend. He took over the vinification from his father before the latter sadly died from cancer in September 2008. His week job is selling corks up and down the Rhone Valley. Definite promise, but micro quantities.

  • JOHANN MICHEL

    LVT 2007 r 2008 wh The family grouping – called GAEC in French - exploded in 2003, and Johann`s father Jean-Luc remained with 2.45 hectares, the produce of which is sold to négociants including Tardieu Laurent. His sister Chrystelle went off to do other things. Johann is very motivated, and can do well.

  • LOUIS SOZET

    LVT 2006 r In his seventies now, Louis Sozet`s great grandfather lived in Cornas, but it took the family time to achieve vineyard ownership. Traditional, true Cornas whose filling is no doubt helped by fruit from some 1919 Syrah. Part of the vineyard is let out to, among others, Stephane Robert of the Domaine du Tunnel. Crop recently sold to merchants.

  • MARCEL JUGE

    Fruit on show, restrained style of Cornas, with tannins that need around five years to settle. A veteran now, part of the vineyard is rented out.

  • MATTHIEU BARRET, DOMAINE DU COULET

    LVT 2007 r New, lively presence at Cornas, although family roots are long present at the village. The family let out some of their vines to Jean Lionnet in the past. There are biodynamic working practices, and fashionably low levels of sulphur used in the winemaking. The wines can be over extracted, but I was told in March and December 2009 that there was less extraction just recently: if they are on form, they show elegant fruit, and good core substance.They are expensive. There are also a red Côtes du Rhône and a Vin de Table from Roussanne and Viognier planted inside the Cornas zone.

  • MICKAËL BOURG

    LVT 2008 r 2007 wh Mickaël Bourg works chez Matthieu Barrot; his grandfather was a mason at Cornas, and Mickaël decided to go into wine after 2 years of working as a mechanic. He rents a few vines from Barrot, and made his first wine in 2006.

  • NOËL VERSET

    Noël Verset is the last of the Cornas old timers, born 4 December, 1919. He has only ever known manual work, both in the vineyard and outside in the dog days of the 1950s, when he doubled up working nights on the French Railways in a warehouse in Valence. His traditional Cornas is robust, and reflects the old days – whole bunches, foot crushing, used cask raising, and maybe some volatile hints here and there. His last vintage was 2006, with crop from his 0.18 hectare Champelrose vineyard. This is now worked by his nephew Alain, while his 0.5 ha holding on Chaillot is being worked by Franck Balthazar. Chapeau, Monsieur Verset!

  • ROBERT MICHEL

    LVT 2005 Robert Michel retired after the 2006 vintage. His holdings were spread across a few young growers. The most notable transfer was the sale of 1.2 hectares on Reynards, Le Thezier and La Geynale to an Anglo-Scandinavian group of wine professionals and enthusiasts (including me). Vincent Paris will work these under a 40-year rental agreement. La Geynale was a good, traditional Cornas that could live for 15+ years. Its fullness reflected the 1910 Syrah from a prime, southern slope in the heart of the appellation.

  • TARDIEU-LAURENT

    LVT 2006 wh 2007 r The King of new oak. Michel Tardieu is the Rhône connection, now on his own having been connected with his Burgundian ex-partner Dominique Laurent. This ia merchant business which raises the wines in southern Rhône cellars at Lourmarin in the Lubéron. Always excellent sources - old vines, good growers, prime sites. The cut back on new oak since 2003 is very welcome - it is now 15, not 24 months, with the remaining 9 months in 1-2 year casks. Their Cornas has always been my favourite - it comes in a more savoury style than some, but the richness is genuine and prolonged. The Hermitage is also very consistent in red and white. These are expensive wines - not surprising after the oak has been paid for! In the south, the Gigondas (2004 notably) and the Côtes du Rhône Guy Louis red are very good - both value for money.

  • THIERRY ALLEMAND

    LVT 2008 r 2006 wh Plenty of STGT qualities at this top-notch domaine. Thiérry Allemand works on low yields, and painstaking vinifications, with limited use of sulphur. The fruit is clear and well-defined, Reynards being the more structured wine, demanding greater patience than Chaillot. Both are high quality, if now expensive. A little St-Péray is being made from 2005. There used to be some St-Joseph crop, from the southernmost part of the appellation, that was sent to the Tain Co-operative, with one wine made only in 2005.

  • VINCENT PARIS

    LVT 2007 r wh DECLARATION I own a few vines on La Genale, the vineyard planted by Paul Michel, Vincent Paris` great-grandfather. Vincent is the nephew of Robert Michel, a longstanding pillar of Cornas, who retired in 2006 and sold his vineyards in part to Vincent and in part to a small Anglo-French-Scandinavian group of winelovers. Vincent`s wines are cleaner and more modern than his uncle`s. This is a highly promising domaine: the fruit quality is good and pure, although reduction can be an issue. Very low levels of suplhur are used in the winemaking. The Granit 30 is the fruit-forward wine, the Granit 60 more structured and best left for 4 to 5 years so it can take on some of the Cornas heartiness beyond its first fruit. From 2007 there will be a third Cornas, La Geynale, about which I am understandably excited, given that it will be founded on 1910 Syrah from a wonderful south-facing slope in the heart of Cornas. Genale is a subset of the acclaimed Reynards site.