2012 Domaine Vincent Paris Cornas Granit 30- France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (8/9/2014)
Nose: It took a while to open up but when it did, it showed off black cherries, crushed rocks, violets, leather, and some gamey notes sneaking in. While it did take a while, this nose got really good real fast with excellent depth and class.
Taste: Medium/full bodied with medium+ acidity and chewy tannins. At the 2 hour mark, the wine felt a bit dumb, but around the 3 hour mark the structure really showed up in a big way. Once this gets going, the weight is excellent with black cherries, crushed rocks, gamey notes, violets, and some charcoal tones.
Overall: This only started to fully show after 3 1/2 hours. Once it did open up, it was a gorgeous young Cornas that showed all of the hallmarks. I would love to see where this goes in another 10+ years. (91 pts.)
Nice note…
Vincent’s wines are the real deal.
There is marked step up in intensity and raw material in the Granit 60 and Geynale, both of which have been knockout good in each of the past four vintages.
Someday real soon, the Allemand fetishists will lose their blinders and and give these wines some more love…
I keep trying them, Robert, and really like them. Will take something more to get me into the “love” category. Looking forward to trying the ‘12s that I hear rave reviews about. These are pure, pretty wines with great materials. I want more funk and sauvage in my Cornas, though. Paris’ wines have come across too whistle clean to me. May be an odd critique, but that’s what I want in a Cornas, some elegant rusticity, if you can pardon the oxymoron.
I would love to find an equal to Allemand for half the cost. I bought a bottle of the 2012 Paris Granite 60 and tried it a few weeks ago. I’ll keep an open mind, but based on that bottle, I can’t say I’m a fan.
Unfortunately, I have not had the Paris wines, so can’t comment; however, if you have not tried Guillaume Gilles Cornas, you may wish to do so. He is the protege of now retired Robert Michel and leases Michel’s prime Chaillot parcel. Rosenthal imports his wines. I won’t say more because I sell his wines and Allemand’s wines (and Stuart B. may be reading).
Echo Martin’s thoughts on Guillaume Gilles. Maybe the wines aren’t quite as polished texturally as Allemand’s, and show a bit more stemminess and tannin young, but they’re awesome, old school Cornas.
Thankfully, there are no “equals” in the wine world, just lots of individual passionate gardeners in their own little worlds.
I was just sayin’ that Vincent’s wines are the real deal in Cornas substance.
As to our definitions of love, without opening a philosophical treatise on the matter, I guess that i’m an easier giver of affection and positive acknowledgement.
It would seem an unfortunate state of affairs if one always held some version of an ideal up against every other similar example and compare them accordingly. I don’t know that I would ever really see something for what it is if I was always wearing “my-ideal” colored glasses…
If every time someone spoke about a Vosne Romanee producer, people said: “It’s not DRC”…??
As to the elegant rusticity, I bet that whole cluster has something to do with this. Try the Paris '11 or '12 Geynale if you want the 100% whole cluster element as well as wow-y elegance. The Granit 60 is more powerful often, but in a more tannic, aggressive, slightly more extracted way, with less whole cluster. There’s a bit of a masculine vs feminine quality every year with the Granit 60 vs Geynale.
Fwiw, it wouldn’t be an equal to Allemand at half the cost, it would be at 40% of the cost (based on the USA $150 Reynard '12 (which it will cost even more, i’m sure of it) and a $60 Geynale '12). Thierry is the man, a great dude, making benchmark wines. But the wines have certainly crossed the fetish threshold in the aftermarket (ex-cellars, a very fair price).
The 11 was definitely surprisingly open and elegant for a Cornas. I generally assume young Cornas is going to be tannic and impenetrable (which was my impression of the 10 Geynale over a year ago), but this one was open from the start. Still had a chewy tannic element, but it snuck up behind the fruit. I thought it was great, but definitely surprising. So I think your assessment here is spot on.
Michael
Disclaimer: I buy Gilles, Allemand (for now), and Paris from people on this thread.
