2007 Cornas

Maxime Graillot told me that he's grateful for the big, healthy crop of 2007 "because in 2008 our production is way, way down after all the selection that we had to make." He said that the '07s initially looked to be lowish in alcohol and there was fear that the wines would be fragile, "but alcohols continued to climb through the fermentations and we're very happy with their structure and expression now." On the subject of 2008, Graillot told me that he began harvesting on October 2nd "because if you didn't wait to harvest you got unripe grapes that were full of water. It wasn't a year for people who get scared easily. The problem with the vintage is concentration, not ripeness, which we got because of the late harvest. Many people are comparing it to 2002 but that's completely wrong because in '02 the wines weren't concentrated or ripe." Graillot also showed me the Alain Graillot wines this year since "Dad is pretty much retired so he gets to go off to Paris to visit restaurant clients while I get to load trucks, like this week. He does have good timing."