2016 Vincent Paris: perfume from granite

7 Mar 2018

Syrah from the granite slopes

And for the first time, Ardèche blanc

No longer the new kid on the block, but now acknowledged as one of the great producers of the contemporary Rhone, Vincent Paris is a child of the area who inherited some of his best vines from his grandfather. His vineyards take in the austere granite slopes of Cornas where the light is plentiful and the Mistral intense, and his direct neighbours are Thierry Allemand and Auguste Clape. The soils are poor here, and the rocky motherlode is often exposed; vines struggle, but the quality of fruit they give is intense. But it's not just about the fruit; Vincent's success is also down to sheer hard graft in the vineyard, coupled with a more relaxed attitude in the cellar.

While 2016 brought intense sunshine early in the season to the southern Rhone, in the north there was an unseasonably cool, wet start. Then a long, dry, warm period kicked in and lasted late into the autumn, culminating in a vintage in many cases considered as great as 2015.

Vincent's Granit 30 bottling comes from the Cornas slope, where granitic soils lead to a lighter, aromatically pure style of Syrah. He also has Syrah vines to the north in neighbouring St-Joseph; the St-Joseph bottling is a little richer, and more approachable young. From floral to savoury to herbal, these wines express the full gamut of the Syrah variety. For the first time, we are also offering the Granit Blanc (2017), from a parcel of Viognier and Roussanne at the very top of the Cornas slope. Before global warming, this location was too cold for any grape farming. Yet Vincent spotted an opportunity and now produces a bright, floral white wine. Almost nobody else in Cornas makes white wine; appellation rules do not even permit the word Cornas on a white wine, hence Ardèche Blanc. /NT

Offered subject to confirmation; available late autumn 2018