Wine Advisor
Alain Voge, Cornas Les Vieilles Vignes 2014
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: James Suckling
This is great Cornas with deep-plum and liquorice fruit, and it's both concentrated and youthful. The purity is staggering, defined by hints of chocolate and pepper that run through pristine dark-plum-fruit flavors. There's also a graphite-like mineral thread and a long core of reliable tannin that builds into a finish oozing potential. Great wine: best from 2022.
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
Similar in style, yet more backward and concentrated, the 2014 Cornas les Vieilles Vignes (18 months in 15% new French oak) offers impressive amounts of graphite, black and blue fruits, licorice and scorched earth in its medium to full-bodied, concentrated, focused style. It needs 2-3 years of cellaring and will drink well for a decade.
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
Tasted out of barrel, the 2014 Cornas Vieilles Vignes sports an inky purple color as well as forward, charming notes of black raspberries, blackberries, crushed flowers and creamy licorice. Much more upfront, charming and supple than the more austere 2013, it has enough density and tannin to evolve for 10-12 years.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
(made with 20 percent whole clusters and 20 percent new oak) Youthful purple. High-pitched, mineral-accented aromas of blackberry, cherry and olive paste are complemented by an incense note and a strong suggestion of smoky Indian spices. Sappy, pliant and alluringly sweet, offering palate-coating black and blue fruit and spicecake flavors and a subtle hint of vanilla. Finishes sweet, focused and extremely long, displaying smoky mineral and floral pastille notes and velvety, slow-building tannins.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Bright purple. Complex, highly perfumed scents of dark fruit liqueur, violet and olive paste gain urgency and lift from bright mineral and spice notes. Juicy and sharply focused in the mouth, offering intense boysenberry and bitter cherry flavors underscored by a smoky mineral nuance. Shows outstanding power and energy, finishing spicy and very long, with a resonating floral quality and slow-building tannins.
About the Producer
Domaine Alain Voge is a family-run winery based in Cornas and has over time built itself the reputation as a superstar of the appellation and its benchmark without doubt. It was founded many generations ago but was blessed with the talented beginnings in winemaking by Alain himself in 1958. Alain tore up the rule book, updated the winemaking techniques of his father, expanded the vineyards and began bottling his wines himself. With over 70 parcels of vines totaling seven hectares, it is no wonder that Alain Voge sometimes seems distracted. Half in jest, he says that the reason he harvests so late is to figure out which vines are his. He spent some time under Albéric Mazoyer, manager and associate of Alain Voge from 2004-2018, before progressing further and making a start in organic production. Thus, since 2013,the whole vineyard is run using biodynamic agriculture, where an artisan and entirely manual viticulture is practiced on the slopes of the Rhône’s rive droite. Since 2018,Lionel Fraissehas been at the helm. He continues to champion the sustainable winemaking of his predecessors.
