The Rising Price of Cornas

WINE TALK
21

It’s called “pay-to-play”…you don’t wanna play, you don’t deserve to be in the sandbox. [whistle.gif]

22

Assistant Wine Maker

23

Thanks! Not too big on abbreviations.

24

Maybe this is the wrong way to look at it but:

  • If you want to drink the “top of the line” Burgundy it will run you $3,000 a bottle in an average vintage and $5,000 in a great vintage.
  • If you want to drink the “top of the line” Barolo it will run you $700 a bottle in an average vintage and $1,200 in a great vintage.
  • If you want to drink the “top of the line” Bordeaux it will run you $700 a bottle in an average vintage and $1,000 a bottle in a great vintage

For northern rhone? The “top of the line” syrah in Cornas or Hermitage will run you $250 a bottle in an average vintage and $500 a bottle in a great vintage.

On that basis, I have zero complaints about the state of rhone pricing. Cornas specifically is only slowly inching towards where Hermitage and Cote Rotie already are and to my tastes Cornas is every bit as good as its counterparts in those other villages.

25

I appreciate the point you are making, but, yes, I I think it’s the wrong way to look at it.

Bordeaux? I can get Lynch-Bages around $100 EP. I think 2014 EP was closer to $80 maybe. I bought 2014 Haut Brion for around $350.

Barolo? I can get Vajra Bricco for around $50. Vintage doesn’t matter.

Burgundy? Maybe harder to find universally regarded good wines for cheap, but I think burgundy pricing is ridiculous too.

I already said that i think LaLa and Hermitage pricing is overly inflated. With Cornas, you are talking the type of inflation that Giacosa has seen and, while I get that for Juge maybe, I don’t think it’s appropriate otherwise. It’s a small bubble. Cornas is a rustic, difficult, often inaccessible and polarizing wine. Try Levet on some unsuspecting wine drinkers… :slight_smile:

I would think that classically styled Rioja would be more appropriate a comparison. LRA and LdH are hardly punishing consumers price wise, despite scores of excellent vintages.

26

I don’t see it for Cornas either, and that includes Juge.

27

I had access to older Cornas, and tasted many Versets and Clapes in the eighties and early nineties, but never bought them in any quantity. I have always considered Cornas a second tier appellation with really full flavored wines with none of the elegance and breadth of the great Hermitages and Côte Roties.

Tasted a few of the modern producers Allemand and Juge and although a little of the rusticity has been dialed back they are still big and to my palate monolithic. At these prices, there are much better alternatives.

28

Just picked up the bottle on your recommendation. I will check it out this week

29

Just another reason why they should not be priced so stupidly

30

… and to my taste Cornas is not “every bit as good” as Cote-Rotie and Hermitage. It´s usually - with exceptions - a step below the other two.
As Mark said: Cornas has a characteristic rusticity, a hardness among the tannins that can be softened by wine-making but is still there at maturity. Moreover Cornas is less complex and more monolythic than CR. and H.
I don´t want to critisize the virtues of Cornas, the qualities are doubtless there, but in my rating of Northern Rhone Appellations it´s definitely 3rd place … and that includes producers like Clape, Verset (who imho is only expensive, but was never the best producer), Allemand and Juge …

However it´s the smallest red AOC … and most producers own vineyards in the low to mid ha figures …
so when demand increases prices go up …

31

Ooo, you’re attacking some sacred cows here. I’d agree with the rusticity comments, but one thing about Cornas is that - when you are drinking it - you really Do get a sense-of-place that you could be nowhere else but the Northern Rhone Valley.

32

Cornas was my first Northern Rhône love affair, and remains as such. Clape Cornas was the culprit. It’s all a matter of personal taste, but I put Cornas over the other appellations, with Cotie Rotie a close second. Sense of place, artisanal, soulful producers, and an elegant rusticity that give the wines an honest feel to them.

33

“elegant rusticity”
Oxymoron of the day!

34

Perhaps, but you of all people know exactly what I am talking about. Think, country squire. A little country, a little aristocratic.

35

Amen brother. That’s one of the things that makes wine so beguiling, the ying-yang they can pull off.

Personally, I much prefer a wine with too much rusticity than too little. The best wines transcend such distinctions, I suppose.

36

I certainly prefer Cornas to Cote Rotie, so if everyone else on this thread stopped buying it and lowered the price that would be great! [snort.gif]

37

You guys need to discover Madiran.
Lots of tannin, big,hearty and not much subtlety.

38

I did discover Madiran … and Irouleguy. I like them.
I’ll go with them being the Cornas version of the South-west, with the Bordeaux to the immediate north as the Hermitage/Cote-Rotie. The best thing is that they’re only 1/3rd to 1/10th the price of Cornas these days.

39

Not true, give it 15-20 years it’ll mellow in subtlety considerably.

40



I exactly know what Robert and Pat mean … nothing wrong with than …
you can prefer Sociando-Mallet or Leoville-Barton to Chateau Margaux …
or Les Saint-Georges or Clos des Epeneaux to Les Amoureuses … why not …
[cheers.gif]

BTW: now and then I drink a good Madiran, however it will never be one of my favorite wines …