Cornas
Cornas is a forgettable little town in the Rhone Valley, on the west side of the Rhone river. It is located 5 kilometers to the west of Valence, about 100 km south of Lyon.
The redeeming feature of Cornas is the vineyards that climb up the ridge on the western side of town. This is the ridge that shapes the western side of the Rhone Valley, and contributes to the natural beauty of the Valley.
The hillsides of this ridge offer very good exposure to the sun, and are thus key to the town’s vineyards, which produce very good wines.
Cornas wines are of particular interest to Australian wine buffs, who have grown up drinking wines made from the Shiraz grape, or Syrah as it is known in France.
Indeed, Cornas produces only red wine exclusively from the Syrah grape variety. They are rich, powerful and dark, long lived, often with supple, ripe tannins.
Cornas wines can be situated somewhere between the rusticity of Crozes-Hermitage and polish of Hermitage.
Another point is that generally speaking the Cornas wines do not attract such high prices as their better-known rivals to the north, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie. Perhaps the best known domaine here is Auguste Clape.
It is often difficult for the wine hunter to find Cornas wines in Parisian retailers as Cornas has only about 110 hectares (270 acres) of vineyards. They lie just south of the Saint-Joseph appellation, which is about 20 times larger. Cornas’ limited size brings focus to its wine production. Unlike its neighbor, Cornas’ reputation does not suffer from perceived variations in quality due to higher output volumes.
Cornas is an old Celtic dialect term for “burnt land”, similar to the “roasted slope” of Côte Rôtie.
Cornas is wonderful for wine walkers like me, who like climbing the “coteaux”, or wine slopes. But it is not very accessible by public transport. I had to take a taxi from Tain-l’Hermitage, which is easily accessible by train from Lyon.