Domaine Thierry Allemand

Thierry Allemand doesn’t hail from a long line of vignerons – he’s the first in his family to work in wine. He started out by working under Cornas legend Robert Michel, and eventually Allemand’s father bought Thierry some vines in 1982. He worked tirelessly to increase his holding, and now owns 5ha across a number of plots in Cornas. He is currently passing on responsibilities to his son Theo.

They work organically, ferment whole bunches and avoid use of new oak; wines are aged on the lees for two years without racking. The estate quickly gained a following primarily in the Natural wine scene for his sans souffre (no added sulphites) cuvée. His last vintage for this bottling was 2014.

Sulphite additions for their other wines are kept to a minimum. Cuvée names can be misleading, as they are named after lieux-dits but aren’t strictly speaking single vineyard wines. Chaillot is their young vine cuvée; Reynard is a bottling of their old vines.

They can be wonderfully fresh, detailed and expressive examples of Cornas, though perhaps not as reliably ageworthy into the long term as some of their neighbours.