1999 Cornas Les Vieilles Vignes

Voge describes 2000 as "a great year, at the level of '98 and '99, with very good material and elegance." There was a bit more acidity than in '99, and slightly less sugar, he adds, but potential alcohols were still a healthy 12.5% or so. Voge is quick to point out that he is not fond of freakish alcohol levels. He prefers to make wines in the 12.5%-13% range, "not higher or the alcohol suffocates the fruit." Each year, the raw material I taste chez Voge strikes me as some of the finest in the village, and I always come away wondering whether these wines might be even stronger if they could be bottled with less intrusive clarification. Voge, for his part, believes that fining smoothes the tannins, and that if he fined without also filtering he'd run the risk of bottling cloudy wines.

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."