1999 Cornas Chaillot

There may be no better source of domain-bottled Cornas today than Thierry Allemand. Allemand's wines, thanks to his high percentage of ancient vines, are concentrated, clear expressions of Cornas with unusual verve and flavor definition. Not surprisingly, Allemand did well in the 2000 vintage. In fact, he told me in November, "2000 brought the same yields and the same sugar levels as '99, but the wines have more roundness, more finesse, better acidity. In 1999, he explained, the ripeness came with a rush at the last minute, bringing down acid levels in the grapes. "These wines are very concentrated, but they're more like Rasteau than Cornas," he said. Because the yield was low in his very old Reynard plot, "the '99 is almost too powerful," according to Allemand, who generally prefers years with normal grape sugars over the freakishly ripe years.

Allemand is one of a few Cornas growers who prefers '98 to '99. "The '98s are fuller wines, and they've always been open," he explained, "while the '99s are thus far less expressive." Allemand compared his '98s to his outstanding '91s. Very low yields and high grape sugars resulted in extremely rich wines in '98, though it must be noted that Allemand did not need to chaptalize in 1999 or 2000 either. Allemand uses one- and two-year-old barriques but never brand-new barrels. "Wood doesn't bring anything to Cornas except faults," he explains matter-of-factly. Allemand is in the process of having another chai built; among the advantages this new facility will offer is the space to do his malolactic fermentations in barriques