Interesting Cornas

As you undoubtedly know, I'm a big wine fan. I'd not gotten a chance to write this up before, but last Wednesday, we met up with an importer, who showed 17 of his producers' products. Most were from the Rhone and Southern France, all were quite interesting, and some amazing. For me, perhaps the most interesting was a Cornas. It's a tiny appelation in the northern Rhone, where only Syrah (or, as the Aussies know it, Shiraz) is allowed. The entire wine region (comparable to say Napa Valley in definition) is just over 100 hectares in size--that's an area that is 1 km, or about 0.6 mile, on a side. If it isn't grown in that tiny area, it isn't a Cornas. This particular producer owns a tiny parcel within that appelation--specifically 0.6 hectares. That's an area roughly the size of two football fields (only the playing area, mind you). From that, he produces 125 cases, or 1500 bottles, of wine. Each of those contains 750 mL, so that translates to just over 1100 liters of wine, or about 250 gallons. And that's all there is of this unique beauty, anywhere in teh world. Pretty amazing! It's a rather elegant wine, for a Cornas, spicy, earthy, haunting in its beauty, yet rustic enough, and quite powerful. Thanks to the vines being old (planted soon after WWII), there's good minerality and depth. Now, it's pretty tannic juice right now, so it's going to have to age for a few years, but rest assured, a bottle of this true rarity is headed for my cellar.