Thierry Allemand, Cornas 'C' Chaillot, Rhône, France, 2021

Overview the Wine
Thierry Allemand is a one-man team making wines of exceptional purity. His name may not go back 100 years in the village, but he did learn to make wine from local legend Robert Michel (who saved Thierry's life once when he fell into a cask of wine…for real!). Allemand makes only single-vineyard Cornas: Reynard and Chaillot. They are two of the world’s greatest wines. (They are not strictly single-vineyard wines, as sometimes Allemand will put his oldest vine Chaillot in the Reynard, and both wines might borrow a bit from other sites; it varies vintage to vintage.) Interestingly, Allemand uses very little sulphur and even makes a small amount of zero-sulphur Reynard. However, the wines are exceptionally clean and do not appear to suffer from its absence at all.

Because of the complexity of Thiérry’s story—and the fact that he is taciturn when it comes to talking about it—most of what has been written about Thiérry is incomplete. One of the best profiles can be found at wineterroirs.com. But even here, Bert Celce describes Thiérry’s work as a domaine bottler beginning in 1991: “He began to sell the wine to the négoce in 1987, until 1991 when the négociants refused to pay him the 32 Francs/liter (about 5 €) rate he asked for his Chaillots and Reynards wines. From then on, he did the bottling and commercialized his wine himself.”

Grape / Blend
Syrah

Origin
Rhône, France

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
Thierry’s prestigious younger vines and is whole cluster fermented, aged for 24 months in oak, and bottled unfined/unfiltered. Chaillots is known for its precision, well-integrated tannins, and peppery food-friendliness on the table. Serve with grilled meats or roast leg of lamb.

Product size: 750ml