52 Cornas AC 2005 La Geynale
Robert Michel

Grape:100% Syrah (13% alc.)

Another northern Rhône classic from vines dating back to 1910, on a very sheltered southerly facing hillside of granite. This is Robert’s top cuvée and has the hallmark Cornas backbone, depth of fruit and staying power – the 1985 was drinking perfectly in February 2005! For drinking now to 2020+.

Technical Information
Winemaker:	Robert Michel
Location:	Cornas
Size of domaine:	5 hectares of Cornas
Grape:	Syrah planted in 1910 on 3309 rootstock. Selection massale. 10,000 vines per hectare in gobelet form trained on wooden stakes.
Terroir:	Very fine decomposed granite on 30° slope, granite bedrock (1 metre below). Due south facing. Very sheltered.
Viticulture:	Soil allowed to grow grass between rows. Debud and carry out vendanges en vert. Both manually weed and use a little herbicide. Sulphur used to treat oidium. No insecticides, organic fertiliser used occasionally. Manual harvest. 37 hectos per hectare.
Vinification:	Grapes gently crushed but not destalked . Alcoholic fermentation in cement cuve using natural indigenous yeasts. Uses remontages (2 per day) and 1 delestage at the end (no pigeages). During fermentation adds azote – v. powerful gas that chases out oxygen from the fermenting must. Temperature controlled by drapeaux at 30° max. 3 weeks cuvaison. Vin de presse assembled. Racked after malos then transferred to 1-6 yr old 600 ltr demi-muids (evaporation is 3 times less than with a smaller barrel). Doesn’t touch wine for 1 year then racks, assembles in 1 cuvée and bottles by contract in 1 go, with no fining or filtration. Prefers ‘Marsannay’ demi-muids – v. fine grained oak. Bottled in March after 18 months.
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qty (bottles)

exc vat: £27.19