Panel tasting: Cornas, Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage 2010s

33 wines tasted

Tasting the 2010 northern Rhônes on release was unforgettable – it remains the most impressive vintage I’ve ever tasted en primeur. The wines were endowed with everything needed to age beautifully: concentration, freshness, incredible depth. It was clear that these were going to be long-lived – but for how long?

Côte-Rôtie lies at the northern end of this slender wine region, 50km north of Hermitage, and the wines enjoy a marginally fresher climate. Much of the best terroir of the northern Rhône is granite, but here the rumpled terraces consist of schist and gneiss. The vineyard area covers little more than 300ha but it’s the largest of these three appellations by far, and home to 80 independent wineries. These are lithe, red-fruited wines that often exude resinous sylvan aromas, then dried leaves and flowers as they age. The Syrah here can be co-planted with up to 20% Viognier (though more than 10% is unusual), which adds further roundness and perfume.

Strictly savoury

Most of the northern Rhône vineyards follow the west bank of the Rhône, but not Hermitage. It’s a majestic hill that rises up at a kink in the river, facing due south. About a quarter is granite, the rest being ancient glacial and alluvial deposits, with some loess at the top. Almost always pure Syrah, the style here is very different to Côte-Rôtie. These are densely tannic, regal wines, darkly fruited and impenetrable when young. They take their time to become comfortably drinkable, and have extraordinary staying power.

A further 10km south is Cornas. Largely on granite at the most southerly part of the northern Rhône, the wines display their own distinct character. Always pure Syrah, and less stylistically consistent than Côte-Rôtie or Hermitage, they tend to have an untamed, windswept nature, often with edgier, more serrated tannins. These punishing terraced vineyards were largely abandoned after World War II, but have since enjoyed a renaissance, and quality has been improving in leaps and bounds.

What these Syrah-based Rhône wines share is a deeply savoury character; they often bring to mind flowers, herbs, spices and dried meats before you notice the underlying forest berries, taking on autumnal and earthy aromas as they age. I love their strict inner architecture; they are often intensely textural wines, searching, tense and saline. This not only means they work brilliantly at the dinner table, it also helps them to develop and improve with age. And in vintages like 2010, that can mean decades.

Matt Walls is a Decanter contributing editor and DWWA Regional Chair for the Rhône