We’re taking round two of Magnum Monday insanity to the next level with a wine that truly has it all: 450 years of fascinating pedigree, elite vineyards in an already prestigious region, bottle age, scarcity, value and, most importantly, jaw-dropping soil character and tooth-staining fruit in the glass.
Domaine Lionnet has earned a globally (and rightfully) celebrated reputation for bottling uncompromisingly classic Cornas. Cornas is one of the most age-worthy red wines on Earth, the best examples of which tend to disappear into cellars upon release for extended bottle aging. Northern Rhône icon René Rostaing calls 2011 “a purist’s vintage”, so we’re particularly thrilled to offer this extremely rare magnum (you won’t find any retailing in the US) with almost seven years of age, just as it’s entering its prime drinking window. This is a brooding, hauntingly powerful master class in what makes Cornas one of the three most important Syrah-growing hillsides in the world, along with Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie. This is an epic wine!
[**PLEASE NOTE: Today’s wine will ship from California the week of Monday, August 6th and is not available for “Build a Case” due to its 1.5L size. Only four magnums per customer.]
I’ve said before that Domaine Lionnet bottles Cornas in a style reminiscent of the old masters, Noël Verset and Robert Michel—i.e. painstakingly handmade wines whose delicate power is fully unleashed after many years of aging melts away their brawn and tannic density. Properly aged, classically styled Cornas is an endangered species of the wine world. One can read about the near-mythical virtues of authentic, mature Cornas in practically every European wine textbook ever printed, but locating the genuine article is another story altogether. There simply isn’t much “old school” Cornas bottled anymore, and if you are fortunate enough to find it, bottles tend to be unreasonably young and/or tannic to enjoy—or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, overly mature and brutally overpriced. So, it’s a genuine pleasure to offer this magnum with nearly seven years of age, just as it’s entering its prime drinking window—and because the global wine press didn’t discover the magic occurring in Lionnet’s cellar until the 2013 vintage, this bottle enjoys a relatively modest price. You can’t lose!
Domaine Lionnet is tiny: this is a one-man-show that produces a few hundred cases of wine from a mere two hectares of vines. Not too much has changed since the family began farming this hillside in 1575. Vines are grown 100% organically, all labor—including the grueling work of maintaining stone terraces—is done by hand, and the wines produced here are designed to be treasured for many years before the cork is pulled. This Cornas “Terre Brulée” is the only wine they bottled in 2011 and it originates from a small handful of granite-dominated hillside vineyards: Chaillot, Combes, Brugeres, and Mazards. The 60- to 100-year-old vines on these parcels are known for producing amazingly dense and aromatic Syrah with definitive Cornas soil character. While it has become fashionable for properties to separate their Cornas into individual single vineyard “luxury” cuvées, the Lionnet family upholds the traditional method, which is to combine multiple parcels into one wine to communicate the totality of Cornas’ timeless and unique terroir. This traditional approach extends to the cellar where all wine travels from press to barrel via gravity flow, no filtering or additives are used, and the wine is left to age for years in old French barrels before bottling and release.
Domaine Lionnet’s 2011 Cornas “Terre Brulée” unfurls slowly at first with red currants, dark cherry, blackberry, and a firm core of granitic minerality before it eventually cracks wide open with vivid cigar tobacco, charred meat, wild lavender, and sage. This bottle is just breaking through into its prime, where I’m confident it will remain for at least another 10-20 years. Having enjoyed many far-older bottles of Lionnet (I have yet to encounter a single bottle that is over the hill!), I can assure you that this wine, especially in magnum, has a long and flattering life ahead of itself. If sharing with friends, please decant for two hours before serving in a large Bordeaux stem at a cool 60 degrees. Temperature is key. You’ll find it equally enjoyable to serve the first half of the bottle one night, then the remainder the following night. Witnessing the gradual evolution across 24 hours of a great, aged Cornas like this is a real treat—especially alongside a platter of braised lamb shanks!
