1994 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard
Thierry Allemand is one of the rockstars of Cornas….one of my favourite Northern Rhone appellations…..it’s a red wine only appellation and Syrah is the weapon of choice.
He wasn’t born into a winemaking family, but grew up in Cornas after his family moved to the region. He worked a decade as a cellar rat at Domaine Robert Michel before purchasing a 0.26 ha plot on La Côte, next door to Auguste Clape…..well, 0.16 ha was under vine….planted in 1961….the remainder was cleared of undergrowth and re-planted.
Over the next decade he pieced together is holdings….a 0.45ha plot on Chaillot…..a 0.45ha plot on Tézier …..both required the uprooting of large trees and the planting of vines. Quickly he’d established himself on three of the best vineyard sites in the appellation but he needed some old vines.
He purchased some old 100 year old vines from Noel Verset , he also purchased a small holding on Reynard from Verset…..80 year old vines on a prized site…..a total of 4.5 ha of vines all up.
It’s a hilly region that is broken into three zones….to the North it is granitic with a limestone seam (wines display freshness with pronounced tannins…..rustic), the central zone, again granitic with flashes of clay (fuller wines, rich) and the Southern zone which is compossed of decomposed granite and sand (supple, aromatic wines).
Reynards has a South-South-Easterly exposure and sits directly to the West of the village of Cornas at around 260m ASL….the soils here are granite & gneiss with the odd spot of clay and limestone.
Allemand produces two wines…..the Chaillots and the Reynard … well three in fact because there is also a san souffre bottling of the Reynard (2000 bottles). Yields are low, as are production levels…..around 500 cases of each wine are produced each year.
Whole-bunch ferments are employed unless ripeness is an issue, indigenous yeast ferments also….some carbonic maceration is used….only 2-3 days and a practise quite out of place in Cornas but one which adds complexity, purity and freshness to his wines.
The wine is raised in a blend of stainless steel and oak until malolactic fermentation is complete and then sees 18-24 months in oak before being bottled unfiltered.
Slightly turbid garnet red….it looks dense and rich and the nose agrees with an intensely aromatic offering of concentrated blackberry and plum fruits, smokey, grilled meats, pepper, deep, exotic spice, earth and licorice with hints of leather and olive tapenade.
In the mouth it is a profoundly complex wine….still rich of fruit with vivid blackberry, blackcurrant and plum flavours underscored by deep spice, rich grilled meats, licorice, veal jus, dried flowers, dark chocolate, pepper and deeply dredged with minerals. It really is one of the best wines you’ll ever be likely to try out of the appellation…..Parker gives the Northern Rhone 88C in his vintage chart…..well if M. Allemand can produce this sort of wine out of an 88C…..whatever the fuck that means….I’m sold.
Still plenty of life with structure to burn…..a beautiful fan of ripe, granitic, chiseled tannins….a fresh line of minerally acidity and a finish that just keeps on keeping on.
This wine is rated as rad to the power of sick and makes me feel as happy and comfortable as a man in a belted sweater……just awesome.
A happy Allemand drinker
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