2017 Cornas

Emmanuelle Verset has fully taken charge of this micro-estate from her father, Alain, and is producing a single, traditionally styled, unadorned and graceful Cornas that shows little in the way of rusticity, with polished tannins and plenty of floral, mineral and succulent herb character. The Versets’ Cornas holdings amount to a mere 1.3 hectares, but they sit in some of the appellation’s most prized sites – Reynard, La Côte, Mazards, Les Côtes and Champelrose. The Cornas is done with 100% whole clusters and sees only neutral oak.

This tiny domaine owns a mere two hectares in Cornas. That land is split between prime Champelrose and Geynale vineyards. Emmanuelle Verset, who took over the domaine from her father in 2018, has moved the winemaking out of the old family cellar near Cornas’ church, to more spacious and relatively modern digs on the far eastern side of town. Emmanuelle Verset said that while she is changing nothing to speak of (100% whole clusters, no new oak) she is considering the possibility of moving from a single bottling to two single-site wines, maybe only in “special, unique vintages, we’ll wait and see.” Readers who love old-school Cornas should be on the lookout for these wines, as well as the excellent 2016 and 2015 bottlings, which remind me quite a bit of the wild and crazy, not to mention now-extinct Cornas that used to be made by the retired and now legendary Marcel Juge, but with less volatility and animal character than his wines. For now, pricing is well below the quality delivered.