Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot Rouge 2020 ANDREW GUARD WINE IMPORTS

Thiérry’s tale is very nearly a Horatio Alger story, where a young man with little education and a humble background achieves great things through sound judgment and an abundance of hard work. His father was a factory worker in Valence but lived in Cornas, where Thiérry became enchanted with the idea of making wine.He had no formal training and little money, but he had the good sense in 1981 to go to work in the cellar of the legendary Joseph Michel. And then the next year he bought a vineyard on La Côte that adjoined vines owned by Auguste Clape. Much of the land needed replanting, but it was a noble terroir.Two years later he bought his first parcel of land in Chaillot, one of the great terroirs of Cornas, with soil of clay of limestone, and very steep, south-facing slopes. And three years after that, he bought land in Tézier. But in each case, he was essentially buying woods that required clearing and planting with vines.Finally, in the late 1980s, Thiérry succeeded in buying great vineyards that didn’t require backbreaking work to bring into production. While working during the day for Joseph Michel, and then Michel’s son Robert, Thiérry was working nights helping Noël Verset. Noël was by then in his 70s with no heir, and he believed in Thiérry’s promise.And so Noël sold him some of his priceless vines in Reynard dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. Noël’s brother Louis, also with no one to succeed him, sold Thiérry some of his old Reynard vines as well. With its intensely mineral, granitic soil, Reynard is one of the great terroirs of the Northern Rhône.There were more terroirs to add, including about two acres each in Pigeonniers and Chaillot; the latter adjacent to Geynale and acquired in 2007 by a Swiss friend who wanted to add them to Thiérry’s palette. When all was said and done, Thiérry today works with an estimated 5 hectares of vines, including some of Cornas’ greatest.

– Importer Note