Maison Nicolas Perrin Cornas - 2012

Notorious wine since the 10th Century. It has been served on French and foreign Royal tables. Cornas became an Appellation d’Origine Controlé in 1938.

For the most part, our wine comes from the locality called “Les Eygats”. Located at an altitude of 250m on decomposed granite slopes, the vines are south, south-east facing.

After a very dry winter and beginning of spring, Mai and June were rainy and sunny at the time, which was beneficial to the vine. On the edge of summer, we were in advance but an intense heat wave blocked the maturities. These conditions needed an exceptional effort in the vines to prevent illnesses and to get the grapes into a very satisfying sanitary state. The harvest started in middle of September. We noticed differences in the maturities depending on the areas, which led to continuing the picking until the first days of October. The yields were also quite different depending on the appellation and parcels.

The Appellation is limited to the locality of Cornas, in the Department of Ardèche on the right bank of the Rhône river. This small appellation of 90 hectares only produces red wines with great ageing potential.

Cold maceration before fermentation to develop the fruit. Maceration and fermentation for 20 days with pumping over during the first few days followed my pumping down. Ageing in 1 and 2 year old casks for 15 months.