Cornas 2018 in bottle: full overview plus top-scoring wines

Cornas is an appellation that’s loved – occasionally feared – for Syrahs with massive structures and serrated tannins. They can take years to tame before they’re ready to drink. But many of the 2018s offer a lot of pleasure already.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring Cornas 2018 wines

This article contains:

• The growing season
• The style of the wines
• Should you buy Cornas 2018?

The growing season

After a very cold winter that saw temperatures dropping to – 6 ̊ Celsius, Guillaume Gilles remembers 2018 being ‘characterised by a rainy spring and a dry, hot summer’.

There was rather too much rain for comfort in fact; in the Southern Rhône it caused a devastating outbreak of downy mildew.

‘I remember feeling stressed having so much water at the end of flowering,’ says Damien Brisset at Ferraton, who used biodynamic treatments to defend against disease. Thankfully it worked: ‘we didn’t really have any damage on leaves or bunches,’ he says.

Other producers in the Northern Rhône reported minor outbreaks, but nothing compared to the damage in the south.

What followed was a very hot July and August, with just the occasional rain shower. Emmanuelle Verset of Domaine A&E Verset remembers a fairly early harvest, starting on the 15th of September.

‘The harvest was very sunny,’ she says, ‘with temperatures up to 35°C.’

Gilles says that the sweltering weather at the end of August could have resulted in sun-baked wines with very strong tannins. But he was pleasantly surprised that his are relatively slender and elegant with restrained alcohols (13% to 13.5%).

He believes this is partly due to the vines beginning to adapt to global warming, and also because he’s adapting his work in the vineyards, such as leaving more leaves on the vines to protect the grapes from the sun.

See all 39 Cornas 2018 tasting notes and scores

The style of the wines

You can feel the heat of the summer reflected in the wines.

They are very ripe, seductively fruity and occasionally quite rich in alcohol. They’re often darkly coloured in the glass, with black fruit flavours centred around blackberry and occasionally blackcurrant.

This isn’t an early-drinking vintage because the wines are weak or weedy. It’s because the wines are so succulent and juicy.

Considering the hot conditions, they are surprisingly fresh. No doubt the generous yields that some reported helped to keep alcohol levels in check and acidities buoyant.

But these large volumes also had some less welcome effects: some lack the depth and length of recent vintages such as 2015, 2017 and 2019.

Verset points out that ‘whole bunch fermentation brings real balance’ and that’s something that many of the more successful 2018s have in common. Some of the 2018s are a little lacking in structure and ageability, and using stems is a way of providing this.

Should you buy Cornas 2018?

If you’re looking for relatively accessible Cornas that’s ready to drink now without too much tannic impact then yes, the 2018s have freshness and are easy to enjoy.

Gilles reports that the growing conditions were quite similar to 2016, and the style is in some ways comparable – fresh, drinkable, not too tannic.

I think 2016 just pips 2018 in Cornas thanks to its restraint, balance and clarity of expression. But given that some of the 2016s are closing down at the moment, the more tender 2018s are a better choice for opening now.

This isn’t a vintage to buy with long ageing in mind. Most will be best young, and will develop over 10 years. The best will last 15 to 20 years, but these are the exceptions.

If you’re looking to buy wines with a view to age them for a long period of time, you might be better off considering 2015, 2017 or 2019 instead. But for drinking now, 2018 is a fairly consistent vintage and the best producers have made some very good wines.

See tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring Cornas 2018 wines

The following wines have been rated 92 points and above

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