Cornas & Côte-Rôtie 2017: Good Wines from a Hot, Dry Year! Eric Texier Plus 2018s from Vincent Paris...

3/7/20 -

As our friend John Livingstone-Learmonth says in Drink Rhone about the somewhat difficult conditions in this vintage: "The top domaines have still turned out wines of abiding interest, structure and longevity, so 2017 will, in places, be a noble, impressive vintage."  This small offering includes some our favorite estates which turned out excellent wines in 2017. In Cornas, for example, nothing may compare with the Allemand "Reynard" but following close behind you'll find the Voge Vieilles Vignes (which contains the juice normally in the Vieilles Fontaines), the superb Guillaume Gilles and the traditional, organic "Terre Brulée" of Corinne Lionnet and her husband Ludovic Izérable.

From Côte-Rôtie, the "Chavaroche" of Agnès and Bernard Levet has become one of the most sought after wines for those seeking a classic, traditional wine of terroir, coming from old vines in "Chavaroche" and "Mollard."  And our friend Eric Texier makes perhaps the most elegant of all Côte-Rôtie, starting with old vines, fermented whole-cluster with little extraction and aged in old wood, wth minimal added SO2! (We'll taste his 2000 and 2001 at Racines on April 1st!)

Perhaps the vines are adapting to new conditions, but 2018 and 2019, both warm and dry vintages, produced ripe, supple very attractive wines in the Northern Rhone (and elsewhere in France). The 2019 barrel samples seemed to show a bit more structure and brightness, we shall see. At any rate, the 2018s are extremely supple and delicious, but perhaps less ageworthy than the best 2017s, and we're happy to offer a trio of Cornas from Vincent Paris, nephew of Robert Michel and owner of beautiful old vine parcels in "Genale," "Patou" and "Mazards."

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