Domaine Johann Michel Cornas Cuvee Jana 2020
- Vinous
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Jeb
Dunnuck
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
Cuvée Jana displays black raspberry aromas, licorice, sizzled bacon and smoke. Elegant and pure, with depth and well-integrated tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Dark purple. Highly perfumed, oak-spiced black and blue fruits, incense, vanilla and potpourri on the hugely perfumed nose, along with hints of licorice, smoked meat and mocha. Stains the palate with concentrated, spice-laced blueberry, cassis, cherry-vanilla and espresso flavors that turn sweeter as the wine opens up. Broad, polished tannins add shape to a strikingly long, smoke- and spice-driven finish that strongly echoes the floral and blue fruit notes.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A smaller production release, the 2020 Cornas Cuvée Jana is deep purple-hued and gives up a more reticent nose of black cherries and darker fruits supported by notes of scorched earth, graphite, and bloody meat. This rich, concentrated beauty has massive concentration, building yet ripe, velvety tannins, and a great, great finish. It's another heavenly Cornas from this estate that readers will absolutely love to have in their cellar.
Rating: 96+
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.