Courbis Cornas La Sabarotte 2020
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Dunnuck
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Parker
Robert
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
La Sabarotte is Courbis’ most dramatic Cornas, showing saturated black-purple in color with layers of chewy, ripe, sweet fruit with black olive and berry, tar and mineral notes.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, I think the 2020 Cornas La Sabarotte is the most complete wine in the lineup. Incredibly rich and concentrated, it has a full-bodied, broad, expansive mouthfeel that carries considerable tannins as well as integrated acidity. It leans heavily toward the blacker fruited end of the spectrum and has lots of background meatiness and spice, and well as classic Cornas iron and bloody nuances. It has more accessibility than the firm, focused Les Eygats but still deserves 3-4 years of bottle age, and it will evolve for 15-20 years. Bravo!
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From a 1.5-hectare parcel of vines planted in 1945 (by Verset), the 2020 Cornas la Sabarotte matures in 50% new oak and 50% second use barrels. Notes of violets and purple raspberries appear on the nose, while the full-bodied palate is concentrated, rich and velvety, leading into a long, tannic finish. It will need a bit of time in the cellar but should be an outstanding drink around 2030.
Range: (91-94)+
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Wine
All the grapes are harvested by hand and yields are kept to an average of 30 hl/ha. The fruit is 100% destemmed and the maceration period for the Syrahs lasts between two and three weeks. The wines mature in oak casks which are new or up to three years old. The red wines are fined with egg whites but not filtered and are bottled between two and three years of the harvest.
The wines of the Courbis estate are some of the most compelling examples of St. Joseph and Cornas being made today. The Courbis brothers have combined their long family experience with a modern style and this has earned them international recognition. Robert Parker sums it up in his book on Rhone wines: “Courbis is a name to watch in the Northern Rhone.” Courbis wines regularly receive rave reviews in Wine Spectator, International Wine Cellar, The Wine Advocate and Revue du Vin de France.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Distinguished as a fine Syrah producing zone since the 18th century, Cornas, like Cote Rotie, is made up of vineyards covering steep and hard-to-work, granite terraces. As a result the region’s wines fell out of favor during the mid 20th century when the global market was more focused on bulk wines and vineyards that yielded high quantities. It wasn’t until the 1980s when a group of energetic young winemakers reestablished the integrity of these precipitous terraces and also began making an ultra-modern style of Syrah. The new style didn’t need a decade before it was drinkable and could reach the consumer faster than the region’s traditional wines. Given the new quality coming out of the zone, its popularity once again soared and today a good Cornas can easily challenge many of those from Hermitage. Characteristics of Syrah from Cornas include teeth-staining flavors of blackberry jam, plum, pepper, violets, smoked game, charcoal, chalk dust and smoke.