2018 Cornas Chaillot

Franck Balthazar is yet another tiny domaine in the region whose wines have become highly sought-after over the last decade; worldwide demand now far exceeds production. Predictably, market prices reflect this growth. Balthazar is a fastidious farmer and careful winemaker, which has earned him tremendous respect from his neighbors on the Cornas hill. All whole clusters are used here, no new oak, and as little sulfur as possible. If you ever encounter the unsulfured “Sans Soufre” Cornas bottlings in France, especially at any restaurants in the area, jump on them, as they are amazing but generally don’t hold up to extended shipping journeys. It’s a very strong case for the “drink local” argument. The 2020s have turned out fantastic, and Balthazar’s 2019s and 2018s belie the hot conditions of those years, except they do have a bit more tannic structure than I usually detect; however, it’s marginal and will likely allow the wines to age slower than usual.

Even though 2018 was hot, Franck Balthazar said “2019 was hotter and also always very sunny, and the 2018s can show more freshness, probably because we got more rain.” They’ll likely be easier to drink young than the 2019s, he thinks. The 2019s, he said, are “pretty serious on the tannin side because of thicker grape skins, but there’s a fresh quality, which is a bit surprising.” He compared them to wines from vintages like 2015 and 2010, “but the tannins in ’19 aren’t as obvious and there’s more fruit and better acidity” than those two earlier years. “It’s obvious that the last three years have been hot and the wines are going to show that, for sure, so it’s going to be interesting to see which way they go,” he added.

Franck Baltahazar told me he finds that "2018 is the complete opposite of 2017. There's more elegance, and the wines are less massive, with less dark personality." He attributes that mostly to the low yields that growers suffered in 2017, which in his case meant around 20hl/ha, as opposed to the normal 30 to 32. "Low yields can mean too much concentration," he pointed out, "and get in the way of harmony and finesse." Those numbers are similar to what Balthazar harvested in 2016, by the way, but he finds the 2016s to be less massive and showing better structure than the 2017s when they were at a similar age. He added that he considers 2016 to be “a great, serious vintage, even the equal of 2010 but with a more delicate touch.” In a vintage like 2017 and 2018, for that matter, I welcome Balthazar's light approach.