A while ago we wrote about Vincent Paris and his Cornas 'Granit 30'. Hopefully you’ve been having fun with that wine, for now we are going to turn to more serious matters. “Serious” can sound scary — who would ever want to watch something “serious” on Netflix when something “fun” is just a click away?
But wine, of course, doesn’t work like movies. Even the most serious wines have just one object in mind, and that is your pleasure.
Seriousness comes from terroir, and it is hard to find much greater than Geynale. Geynale is a part of Reynard, a well-known site that is considered the best in Cornas.
Well, Geynale may be the best of the best, lying in a section of Reynard that is particularly rich in the granite soils that give Syrah here such power and grace. Cornas legend Robert Michel possessed vines here that were planted in 1910, and Vincent Paris, his nephew, was lucky enough to inherit them.
He takes the old vines Geynale and blends it with a little bit (20-30%) of Reynard fruit that is not in Geynale to produce his masterpiece, “La Geynale”.
Is the Geynale serious? Absolutely. It will give great pleasure one day, but for now it is fairly forbidding…that’s the granite talking. Please go ahead and bury it in your cellar.
For “serious” pleasure that you can still enjoy now, turn to the Granit 30’s big brother, the “Granit 60”. It is a blend of Cornas’ different terroirs — so some sandier soils and some limestone as well as plenty of granite — which produce a more open-knit wine.
Is the Geynale serious? Absolutely. It will give great pleasure one day, but for now it is fairly forbidding…that’s the granite talking. Please go ahead and bury it in your cellar.
For “serious” pleasure that you can still enjoy now, turn to the Granit 30’s big brother, the “Granit 60”. It is a blend of Cornas’ different terroirs — so some sandier soils and some limestone as well as plenty of granite — which produce a more open-knit wine.
But unlike the 30, the 60 has some very old vines, including from the Pre-War era – and in this case we mean pre-World War I! The “60” refers to the gradient of the mostly south-facing slopes, so these are vines that scoop up sunshine to create powerful wines. The 30 is great Syrah, but the 60 is great Cornas. That’s what we mean by serious.
In recent years we’ve had to skip these two cuvées in our newsletter because of insufficient allocations of these increasingly sought-out wines. This year we have just enough to offer it out, with our usual discounts, although we may have to limit some orders:
Vincent Paris, Cornas Geynale, 2019
Vincent Paris, Cornas Granit 60 VV, 2019
In recent years we’ve had to skip these two cuvées in our newsletter because of insufficient allocations of these increasingly sought-out wines. This year we have just enough to offer it out, with our usual discounts, although we may have to limit some orders:
Vincent Paris, Cornas Geynale, 2019
Vincent Paris, Cornas Granit 60 VV, 2019