Cornas: Granite, Gravity, and the Return to Structure
Cornas is a place of sharp slopes and long memories. The vineyards rise steeply above the Rhône River’s west bank, carved into narrow terraces that require stone walls to keep them from sliding. The grape is always Syrah. The style, historically, has been thick with tannin, resistant to early interpretation, and almost architectural in its density. Cornas is not a region that evolved in smooth curves. It fractured, stalled, and only recently began to gather itself into clarity.
The history begins early. Records from the ninth century describe vines planted near
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