Cornas
Controlled appellation
Les Vieilles Fontaines
In the locality named “La Fontaine” is a spring that used to supply water to the home of a noble family in Cornas. The wine named Les Vieilles Fontaines was first made by Alain Voge in 1988 on this superb granite terroir, enhanced by our oldest Syrah vines. Produced only in exceptional vintages, Les Vieilles Fontaines clearly shows the strong character of Cornas and the ethos of our work. The most recent vintages produced are 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2015. The 2010 vintage received a rating of 100/100 from Robert Parker-The Wine Advocate: a first for a Cornas wine.
TERROIR
This wine, produced solely in superb vintages, comes from a plot of vines aged 80 years old, planted on a magnificent granite terroir. The vines, with their roots set deep down, produce grapes of outstanding expression.
2020 VINTAGE
The vines enjoyed an untroubled 2020 season from a health point of view, which was not the case for the winegrowers and their teams, who had to work very hard to cope with the constraints of the covid pandemic... Otherwise, the main feature of the 2020 season was its early start: budding, flowering, veraison and harvesting... starting on 20 August for the first Marsannes in Saint-Péray and ending on 15 September on the heights of Cornas. The juices from Saint-Péray were well-balanced, without excessive alcohol levels, after very dynamic fermentations with our indigenous yeasts. At Cornas, the vintage was also balanced, fruity but with ripe tannins, sometimes spicy and not lacking in volume - very promising indeed.
OUR VINE GROWING AND WINEMAKING
• Organic certification for the vines and wine in the 2016 vintage and biodynamic methods used.
• Syrah vines trained and pruned in the Gobelet style and supported by stakes.
• Hand-picked harvests.
• Partial destemming with 30 % whole grapes.
• Fermentation with natural yeasts and maceration for several weeks in stainless steel vats, with daily cap-punching and pumping over.
• Maturation in 228-litre barrels for 24 months, with 15% to 20% new barrels.
• Amount of sulphite reduced: 46 mg/l total SO2 (100 mg/litre authorised in organic winemaking)
• Production: 2.711 bottles / 209 magnums
• Ageing potential: 25 years
THE ATMOSPHERE…
The dish:
Deer in Sake-lees
The Chef(fe)
Anne-Sophie Pic, Anne-Sophie Pic restaurant, Valence
… COMMENTS
2010 Vintage: “One of the few perfect Cornas wines I have ever tasted is the 2010 Cornas Les Vieilles Fontaines. Even better than it was last year from barrel, (…), it remains the most backward wine of this trio, boasting an extraordinary black/purple colour as well as a remarkable perfume of spring flowers, crushed rocks, lead pencil shavings, blueberry and blackberry liqueur, licorice and truffles. Deep, full-bodied, tannic and backward with everything perfectly integrated into its personality, this is a monumental Northern Rhone. Give it several years of bottle age and drink it over the following 25-30+ years.”
Robert M. Parker Jr. – Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (27/12/2012): 100/1002020 Vintage: “With a primordial intention, it offers layers of black and blue fruits, rose petals, violet sweets, blood meat and bouquet garni.”
