| Region of production: | Cornas |
| Winery Location: | Cornas |
| Year Established: | 1981 |
Vineyard Holdings
Cornas: 5 ha total; soil is mostly decomposed granite (gore)
- Reynards: planted in 1900 and 1934; acquired from the Versets
- La Geynale
- Chaillots: some plots on limestone subsoil
- Le Tezier: planted in 1960s
- Le Bois
Saint-Péray: 0.35 hectares, purchased in 2005
Top Wines Produced & Inaugural Vintages
- *Cornas “Reynard”: a blend of parcels with average vine age over 40 years; usually includes old vines in Chaillots, Reynards, Le Tezier and La Geynale. Inaugural vintage 1991.
- *Cornas “Chaillot”: a blend of parcels with average vine age under 40 years; includes parcels in Chaillots, Le Tezier and Le Bois. Inaugural vintage 1991.
- Cornas “Sans Souffre”: a bottling with no added sulfur; usually from old vines in Reynards; bears a different label than the other wines and is labeled only “Cornas.” Inaugural vintage 1998
*1990, 2002 and 2003 the parcels were blended together and one bottling was made.
Average Total Production
- 18,000 bottles
Summary
The son of a Valence factory worker, Thierry Allemand built his domaine from scratch after dropping out of school and discovering his love of the vine while working with Robert Michel. Thierry bought his first small plot in 1981 and continued to collect small plots here and there, tending his vines on the weekends while spending weekdays chez Michel (he only began working for himself fulltime in the mid-1990s). An inquiring mind, Thierry has continually evolved his winemaking. After starting out with a by-the-book approach, literally “making” his wines by adding yeast, tannin and enological enzymes as well as utilizing mechanical crushing and de-stemming, he abandoned all of these practices after seeking advice from older growers in the area, especially Noël and Louis Verset. He also eliminated racking and reduced the use of sulfur in his wines, believing that these two factors contributed to the perception of Cornas as a rustic, aggressive wine.
Style & Vinification Techniques
The approach at Allemand is traditional. Viticulture is organic and the yields have historically been low. The wines are not de-stemmed, and all pigeage is done twice daily by foot. The wines are aged in either old 228-liter barriques, 600-liter demi-muids, or larger 9-hl foudres; they are not racked and are bottled after 18-24 months in wood. Sulfur usage is very low, and the wines are not fined or filtered before bottling. The wines are powerful and aromatic, but more elegant than the village’s reputation for “hard, rustic wines” would lead one to believe.
Producer Website: N/A