2000 Cornas Les Vieilles Vignes

In contrast to a couple of his colleagues inx000D Cornas, Voge told me the grape skins were riper in 2001 than in 2000. Two thousand one is a great year thatx000D promises to be long-lived; the wines are characterized by jammy, violetyx000D fruit." Voge did only a bit ofx000D chaptalization, "to round out the wines." Still, he noted, the power of the wines comes from their strongx000D material, not from alcohol. Voge prunesx000D short but is not a proponent of later techniques to further reduce cropx000D levels. I'm more worried aboutx000D getting small grapes and small clusters than I am about the number ofx000D clusters," he told me. Toox000D much eclaircissage generally results in overcompensation by thex000D vines." But Voge also told me hex000D does three or four passes through the vineyards during the summer to pullx000D leaves and minimize the humidity around the grapes.

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.