1998 Cornas Les Vieilles Vignes

Voge is extremely high on the 1998 vintage, describing it as one of the best of the century for Cornas. "I wasn't around for the first half of the century," he allows, "but we didn't have great years here like they did in Hermitage." The Cornas appellation was officially established in 1938.] "Frost years are usually bad years," Voge explained, "but in '98 the frost was very early and we were able to take maximum advantage of the low yields. The '98s feature an explosion of fruit," he added. "Actually, we've had three very good vintages in a row in '98, '99 and '00," said Voge, "but '98 is the best. Nineteen ninety-nine was a bit too high in alcohol for syrah, but due to the large size of the crop the fruit was harder to ripen and kept more acidity."

Voge describes 1998 as une grande annee, solidly built and with more material than usual, though he admits that they are not easy wines today. Yields were in the low 27-28 h/h range, with grape sugars ranging as high as 13%. Indeed, I tasted some superb samples of '98 juice chez Voge in November, but must note that these wines will be fined and lightly filtered before they go into bottle. Voge believes that fining smoothes the tannins of his wines, but feels that fining without filtering, a common practice in Cornas, can cause problems, especially if atmospheric conditions prevent the wine from falling bright. But surely at least some of these highly promising '98s have the sheer gras to buffer their tannins, especially a cuvee of old vines that was completely destemmed.