1999 Saint-Joseph Les Lauves

Colombo is cutting back sharply on his consulting activities to devote more attention to a major new project south of the Marseilles airport, in an appellation that will be called La Cote Bleue as soon as he can convince the authorities to recognize it. Grenache, syrah, mourvedre and cabernet sauvignon are planted on the property, and Colombo, who is originally from Marseilles, is convinced that the raw materials for making outstanding wine are already in place. Meanwhile, he was quick to tell me that his wife Anne, also a trained enologist, was mostly responsible for making the current crop of Cornas. Cuvaison in '99 lasted a long 32 days, and today wines are racked just two or three times during their levage "Not long ago we racked every three months, as in Bordeaux," Colombo noted. He was not able to show me the '98 Cornas Terres Brulees, as a sizable quantity of the bottled '98s was stolen during a break-in at his warehouse in September.