2011 Cornas Champelrose

Looking at the 2011s from bottle, the 2011 Cornas Chamelrose is an elegant, approachable and creamy textured beauty that gives up mineral-laced aromas and flavors of creme de cassis, black raspberry, lavender, smoke and truffle. Spending 16-18 months in roughly 25% new oak, it is a knockout effort in the vintage that shows uncommon depth and richness. Enjoy it over the coming decade. This was a stacked lineup from this top-notch estate, and I was able to taste through the lineup multiple times, once while visiting the domaine, and again in a larger lineup of wines from each appellation. They never failed to impress. Located in the tiny town of Chateaubourg and covering roughly 50 acres in Saint-Joseph and 20 in Cornas, most of which are ideally situated, Courbis is now run by Laurent and Dominique Courbis, with Laurent running the cellar and Dominique managing the vineyards. Despite the high quality, these wines remain reasonably priced, and also see good distribution in the US. It’s an estate that needs to be on every Northern Rhone lover’s short list. Importer: Russell Herman, Berkeley Heights, NJ; tel. (908) 771-9082