2018 Guillaume Gilles Cornas Nouvelle R Les Rieux - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (6/29/2021)
Fantastic! Coravin’ed a couple of glasses, no decanting. Wow, an explosion of red fruit, smoke, stalk, stem and floral notes. And the palate, wow, absolutely gorgeous, pure, juicy red fruit, seems like it must be whole cluster, white pepper, some definite tannins but such lovely acidity and juicy, pure, mineral, clean fruit. Wow. Really special, lovely wine! (94 pts.)
Posted from CellarTracker
Thanks for the note. IIRC this one’s from a higher-elevation plot that he expects will benefit from further warming in the region. I had an great cellar visit in 2019 and sampled this then, as well as the 2018 from barrel. Great wines.
I had the (regular?) 2012 in May, nice really good wine, accessable but far from mature and not really stunning … quite fruity
Any noticeable oak?
2018 or 2017 (the pic) ?
I really liked the Cornas Nouvelle R Les Rieux 2018 in september 2020 (17,5/20).
Same rating for the lovely 2017 in october 2019.
Guillaume Gilles Cornas « Nouvelle R » Les Rieux 2018 : 17,5/20 - 5/9/2020
Elégance diaboliquement fruitée, florale et épicée de Côte-Rôtie (cassis, fleurs, bacon, bâton d’encens, graphite, …). Bouche pure, particulièrement fine, équilibrée par une acidité noble et longue.
Pour info :
Cornas Guillaume Gilles Nouvelle R Les Rieux 2017 : 17,5/20 – 14/10/2019
Pur, net, fin, élégant en diable … Remarquable.
The vineyard Weinlagen
Thanks for the note–I’ve got a bottle of this tucked away in my locker. Do you think this is better suited to earlier drinking, or is it worth laying down for a while?
I had the 2018. It is not my pic, just one that CellarTracker had available.
Not for me.
It is darned approachable right now. I went through all of my Lyle Fass purchases for “homework” that he thought would make good early drinking, and this was one he assigned me. He was right. I am also sure it will improve.
This shouldn’t have any oak.
It’s definitely the earlier drinking of Gilles’ two cuvees. It’s still very young vines, too.
Not really …
Such a great producer.
Had the 2016 of this couple years back and it was very good, not ‘stunning’ (but that word is not invoked very often), but very fresh and fruity. Almost like a modern naturalist’s take on syrah.
That was my take on some prior vintage, perhaps 2015 if my memory is correct, where I concluded the cost differential to the Cornas cuvée was not significant enough to chose the R Les Rieux over the main Cornas. Both have gone up quite a bit. I should grab some again to try. Nice note, Eric.
IIRC, the size of the barrels were either 500 or 600L and with plenty of age on them.
Thanks for all the answers 
Interesting thread. I’ve loved Gillaume Gilles for a number of vintages, but I fear he’s going the way of Gonon. For $50-60, GG is a killer deal. I was offered the '18 at $80, which is borderline for me. If this gets closer to $100, I’m out.
So what you’re saying is that it’s Cornas 
