Cornas Juliette 2023 Franck Balthazar | Rhône

Franck Balthazar 's Cornas Juliette is a particularly rare cuvée, born of old vines planted on the granite slopes of Cornas, in the heart of the Northern Rhône. The vines, planted on a steep plot once owned by the winemaker's wife's grandmother, produce a concentrated Syrah deeply marked by the decomposed granite rock. On this particularly steep family terroir, Domaine Franck Balthazar continues to work exclusively by hand: organic farming, soil tilling with pickaxes and winches, and hand harvesting. The whole bunches ferment naturally with their indigenous yeasts in concrete vats, before ageing for 12 to 18 months in old foudres and demi-muids. No fining or filtration, and sulfur is used sparingly to preserve the wine's authenticity.

Philippe Mischler, sommelier at Mundovin : Franck Balthazar 's Cornas Juliette sums up everything that makes this great yet discreet winemaker so famous: intensity, purity and uncompromising quality. The wine expresses a remarkable balance between power and freshness, true to the granite line that runs through his Cornas cuvées. This Cuvée Juliette has a more vertical, finer-grained dimension than Chaillot, with an energy that is almost austere in its youth, but which ten years of cellaring will sublimate.

The nose of this cuvée Juliette is intensely expressive of wild blackberry, blackcurrant and blueberry, with hints of violet and black pepper adding extra sparkle. Aeration brings out a multitude of aromas of black olive, smoked bacon, peony, licorice and tobacco, whose formidable complexity underpins this wine's great ageing potential. The mineral dimension of the granite slopes is felt at the back of the glass, with accents of warm stone.

On the palate, the wine is juicy, with a precise mineral structure that gives it great verticality. Full-bodied black berries are clearly expressed, carried by notes of spice and hot stone. Chiseled tannins coat the mouth with a tight grain that will melt beautifully with age. The lingering minerality of the finish endows the wine with a fine salinity that makes tasting last.