Cornas is a tiny appellation, covering 145 hectares (compared with Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s 3,000+), and home to fewer than 50 vignerons. Located at the southern end of the Northern Rhône Valley, Cornas (which means “scorched earth” in Celtic) harvests a week earlier than Hermitage (just 20 minutes north), and the vertiginous slopes produce wines with a southern, sunbaked character.
The Domaine Dumien-Serrette is relatively new to the Ansonia portfolio, but hardly new to Cornas — records show Dumiens living there in 1515. Their excellent regular cuvée Cornas “Patou” is inky and delicious and… totally sold out. (Watch July Futures for the 2020s.)
So we’re offering our last two cases of their rare “Cuvée Henri,” made from 100 year old vines and only 600 bottles produced. We have a case each of two vintages: 2018 and 2019.
Since 2013, Nicolas has made a few hundred bottles of the cuvée Cornas “Henri,” an homage to his grandfather Henri in the year he would have turned 100. The wine spends 20 months in barrel, and pulls from the oldest vines in the “Patou” vineyard in Cornas.
This is enormous wine, with an explosive nose of cassis, licorice, raspberries, black pepper, bittersweet chocolate, and plums. The mouth is intense, long and beautiful — the tannins are extraordinarily dense and fine. The 2019 will be slightly riper and more aromatic than the 2018, which will be slightly deeper and more serious. Both will impress.
100 year old vines. Whole-cluster Syrah. Wild yeasts. If you’re in the market for profound, age-worthy Syrah, these won’t disappoint. (But if you delay, they just might.)
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Dumien-Serrette Cornas “Henri” 2018
bottle price: $75
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Dumien-Serrette Cornas “Henri” 2019
bottle price: $82
