The origins of
the Courbis family estate date back to the 16th century. More
recently, the brothers Dominique and Laurent Courbis succeeded their
father, Maurice, in the early 1990s. They have since firmly established
themselves as leaders of the modern school of winemaking in St Joseph
and Cornas. The Courbis style may be summarized as offering wines
filled with intense aromas and fruit of great purity and length. This
is in large part achieved by a combination of meticulous and
sustainable vineyard work undertaken to attain perfectly ripe, healthy,
concentrated grapes and vinification and aging in both tanks and
barriques. The wines emphasize the expression of fruit while
highlighting the character of the various St-Joseph and Cornas vineyard
origins..
The estate owns
26 hectares divided as follows: 5 ha in Cornas, 5 ha of St Joseph
Blanc, and 15 hectares of St Joseph Rouge and 1 hectare of Vin de Pays
de l’Ardeche. The vineyards are all on south and east facing slopes in
the communes of Chateaubourg, Glun and Cornas. All the grapes
are harvested by hand and yields are kept to an average of 30 hl/ha.
The fruit is rigorously sorted and 100% de-stemmed. The maceration
period for the Syrahs lasts between two and three weeks. The wines
mature mostly in barriques which are new or up to three years old. The
red wines are fined with egg yokes and are not filtered. They are
bottled about two years after the harvest.
The St-Joseph Blanc
derives from vines planted on a unique limestone section of the St
Joseph appellation, whose soil is suited only for white grapes. The
blend is 95% Marsanne and 5% Roussanne. The white is fermented in tanks
at low temperatures, and aged in one third in new barriques (with
weekly battonage) and two thirds in tanks. The white wine is kept on
its fine lees until the Spring after the harvest to develop additional
complexity. It is assembled and bottled after 10 months of maturation.
It is a racy, lively wine with distinct flavors of pit fruits
(apricots) and spice.
The St-Joseph
Rouge and the Cornas Champelrose
come from various vineyard parcels across the Courbis domaine. The
soils are a combination of limestone and granite. The various parcels
are blended to attain St Joseph and Cornas wines that ready for near
term drinking upon release. The St-Joseph Rouge
is aged in a combination of tanks and barrels: 35% tank and 65%
barrels, of which 15% are new. After 10 months, the barrel aged wine is
assembled back in tank for a few more months before bottling. The Cornas
Champelrose is aged entirely in casks that are usually
10% new, 50% one year, and 20% each 2-3 years of age. The barrel-aging
period is 12 months, after which the wine is assembled in tank and aged
for a few more months before bottling. Both wines have generous fruit
and show the full character of their respective appellations in the
attractive Courbis house style.
Among the
single-vineyard wines, the steeply terraced St-Joseph
Les Royes site is
a spectacular “cirque” or steep amphitheater. It is located at the
southern limit of the St. Joseph appellation, on the border of Cornas.
Exposition is south-east which retains the heat of the day, while
completely protecting the vines from northerly winds. The soil is a
mixture of clay, granite, and limestone (the latter being the source of
the small amount of Les Royes Blanc.) Yields are a miniscule 25 hl/ha.
The Les Royes Rouge is aged 100% in barrels, of which about 1/3 are new
and the balance being between 1 and 3 years of age. After 12-14 months
in cask, the wine is assembled and aged for 3 additional months in tank
before bottling. The St-Joseph Les Royes
is a profound and complex wine with sweet black cherry-raspberry fruit,
notes of minerals and smoke, and ripe tannins that give it remarkable
structure.
Domaine
Courbis offers two exquisite, single-vineyard Cornas wines. The 1
hecatare, terraced Cornas Les
Eygats site is situated at a relatively high 250 meters
of altitude. It has pure granite soil and has an ideal south-east
exposure. Les Eygats is aged entirely in barriques for
16 months, of which 50% are new and 50% and one year old. It is a
highly concentrated wine, packed with smoky black fruit that can age
for many years but is always inviting when young. The Cornas
La Sabarotte parcel – widely considered to be among the
very best sites of the appellation -- has extremely old vines (most
planted in 1947 but some are even older) on a granite-limestone soil.
La Sabarotte is aged in 100% new oak for 16 months and undergoes its
malolactic fermentation in cask. It is Courbis’ most dramatic wine,
showing saturated black-purple in color with layers of chewy, ripe,
sweet fruit with black olive and berry, tar and mineral notes.
Courbis also
produces a cuvee of mostly young vines St-Joseph as their
Syrah Vin de Pays de l’Ardeche. This wine is aged in
tanks and has an intense, dark color with powerful dark berry and
cassis fruit. It is a remarkable value.
The wines of
the Courbis estate are some of the most compelling examples of St.
Joseph and Cornas being made today. The Courbis brothers’ have
successfully combined their long family experience with a modern style,
and their achievement has earned them international recognition. In a
feature profile on the domaine in 2002, Wine Spectator noted that
“Laurent and Dominique Courbis are giving Cornas added cachet with
their sophisticated Syrahs.” Robert Parker sums it up in his book on
Rhone wines: “Courbis is a name to watch in the Northern
Rhone.” Courbis wines regularly receive rave reviews in Wine
Spectator, International Wine Cellar, The Wine Advocate and Revue du
Vin de France.
