originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Mark -- A big difference is the much greater presence of old vines in Cornas than in Côte-Rôtie. And then there's the vegetal material. For a long time in the 1970s-1980s, maybe even 1990s, people at Côte-Rôtie were planting with a Syrah clone that came from the Southern Rhône and not from the indigenous plants. And then, too, there is the great expansion onto the plain above the Côtes (although Cornas is now having its own issues, too, with expansion). Finally, there were a lot more oldtimers in Cornas and they passed a lot on to the younger generation (at least that part that was willing to follow them): in the 1970s and first 7 years or so of the 1980s, the only new vigneron to take over in Cornas was Robert Michel; all the rest of the young people left for non-wine jobs.
Are you familiar with Levet's wines? They come from Ton-ton Chambeyron (not the Chambeyron who today operates in Côte-Rôtie). Ton-ton was a legend and no less than Marcel Guigal once told me that Chambeyron was the best in Côte-Rôtie in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s when I asked about him. Mme. Levet is Chambeyron's daughter and inherited his vines and still does everything very traditionally; her daughter has been taking over -- very unusual to find a female producer in the Northern Rhône.
Even those who have old vines often dilute them with new vine plantings. When Kermit Lynch was representing Rostaing and Rostaing had inherited Gentaz's vines, Kermit tried to get Rostaing to make a cuvée Gentaz. Rostaing did keep the wine separate in cask for a few years and I tasted it there and was superb. But Rostaing blended it back into the other wines.
I'm sure Brézème can add a lot more here.
