2009 Cornas Chaillot Cuvee Speciale

According to Franck Balthazar, "What makes 2009 such a special vintage is the fact that the wines are rich and concentrated but still very fresh." He believes they will be appealing on release and doesn't foresee the wines ever really shutting down "as they do in most powerful years." Balthazar is another Cornas producer who is convinced that the 2008s "will be punished for the sins of their relatives even though the wines from the southern part of the northern Rhone have good depth and complexity, without dilution or too-high acidity, which is the stereotype." That's especially the case for Cornas, he added: "Since it's warmer here than anywhere else in the north, our vines are mostly south-facing, and there are more old vines in Cornas than in any appellation of the north."