Cornas Les Ruchets

Jean-Luc Colombo has been a renowned enologist in the Rhône Valley since the early 1980s. His consultations at prestigious estates across the Rhône quickly earned him a reputation for helping produce incredible expressions of this rugged terroir. But his greatest contribution to the wine world is the exceptional wines he crafts alongside his wife, Anne, and daughter, Laure. The Cornas-based Colombo winery has earned impressive international recognition bringing modern viticultural practices to the region — and for creating beautifully concentrated, balanced, and fresh styles of syrah. Living among their vineyards and wetlands, the family have been committed to sustainable farming, achieving organic certification for their estate vineyards from Ecocert in 2016.

The heart of the Colombo winery is based in Cornas, one of the smallest appellations in the Rhône Valley with 375 acres. Cornas, the birthplace of Syrah, has 300 million year old decomposed granite subsoils and dry-farmed vineyards, as irrigation is not permitted. Maximum yields are 34 hl/ha. Les Ruchets (The Beehives) is Colombo’s icon wine with his first release in 1987. Les Ruchets is a single vineyard of 5.4 acres within Chaillot designation, with vines that average 90 years old, 38° slope, and a yield of 17 hl/ha.

Grapes are hand-harvested and de-stemmed. Fermentation takes places in stainless steel tanks; 30-day maceration. The wine is aged for 22 months in oak barrels, 15% in new, 85% in one- to three-year-old oak barrels. The wine is bottled unfiltered and is vegan.

A very expressive but fine nose with aromas of Provençal herbs such as thyme and rosemary. The palate is structured with flavors of ripe dark fruits such as blackberry but it also shows some kind of freshness thanks to menthol notes.