Wine Advisor
Thierry Allemand, Cornas Reynard 2010
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
More austere and structured, the 2010 Cornas Reynard offers up a thrilling array of graphite, crushed rock, liquid violet and both black and blue fruits on the nose. Gaining hints of bacon fat and game with air, it hits the palate with a full-bodied, rich and concentrated profile that carries masses of sweet tannin, bright acidity and serious length. Give it 3-4 years of cellaring and enjoy it over the following two decades. Thierry Allemand has been working the steep slopes just outside the town of Cornas since 1982, when he planted his own vineyard. Since then, he has slowly added plots, and now has roughly 10 acres under vine, most in prime spots and granite soils. The winemaking here is very traditional, with little destemming and the wines spending up to two years in older barrels and foudre, with little racking, before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. He normally releases two Cornas; the younger vine cuvee, the Chaillot, which comes from vines from 5 to 40 years in age, and the older vine cuvee, the Reynard, which comes from the oldest vines on the estate (34- to 90-year-old vines). Looking at the 2010s, the wines are more fresh, focused and austere than the 2009s, with additional purity and focus.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
Super rich and deeply ripe, this is packed with dark fruits as well as violets, pepper, flint and graphite-derived aromas amid notes of dark Belgian chocolate. The palate delivers a sweeping wave of perfectly ripe tannins and a seamless build through red and dark plums to black-cherry liqueur. Complex spicy elements and a profound sense of elegance with power resound. Finishes all velvety. A brilliant wine with a lot more to come here in terms of unfurling and filling out. Best from 2025 and a decade or two after that.
About the Producer
Thierry Allemand is located in the Cornas appellation of the Rhone Valley in France. Like the sleeping beauty of the Rhone Valley, Cornas has just awakened from its slumber. The wines produced here were once praised by Charlemagne, but for centuries they were under-appreciated. It was not until 1980 that a passionate winemaker with a dream arrived in Cornas and woke her up from her slumber: Thierry Allemand. At the age of 18, Thierry Allemand came to work at the Robert Michel winery in Colnas, and at the age of 19, he began making his first barrels of wine. He worked at the winery during the day and ran his own 1.5 hectare vineyard in his spare time. In 1987 he started selling his raw wine to wine merchants and in 1991 he started producing and commercialising bottled wine. After 15 years of running two jobs at the same time, he built Château Tillarimont with his own efforts, without taking out a bank loan. Château Tillarimont is situated on a north-south facing slope on the west bank of the Rhone Valley and covers just under 5 hectares. The vineyard soil is mainly composed of limestone-clay and granite soils, where there is plenty of light and the grapes tend to ripen early. The vineyard is dedicated to Syrah grapes and all the ripe grapes are hand-picked. Like all of the Corners legal reds, Thierry Allemande's wines are made from 100% Syrah. These wines are generally powerful, heavy-bodied, with supple, ripe tannins and intense aromas of red fruit, spice and liquorice.
