Tardieu Laurent : Cornas "Vieilles Vignes" 2025

Characteristics and Tasting Tips for the Cornas “Vieilles Vignes” 2025 by Tardieu-Laurent

Food and Wine Pairing

This Cornas “Vieilles Vignes” 2025 is a natural match for full-flavoured meats such as duck, lamb or game, as well as slow-cooked dishes with mushrooms. It also pairs well with aged cooked pressed cheeses, which complement its aromatic richness and expected tannic structure.

Serving and Cellaring

The Cornas “Vieilles Vignes” 2025 by Tardieu-Laurent follows in the tradition of the great age-worthy wines the house produces from old vines, and requires cellaring to fully reveal its complexity.

A Cornas from Tardieu-Laurent's Old Vines

The Estate

Founded in 1994 by Michel Tardieu in partnership with the Burgundy négociant Dominique Laurent, Tardieu-Laurent is based in Lourmarin, in the Luberon, yet devotes its activity entirely to the Rhône Valley. A négociant-éleveur with no vineyards of its own, it relies on a network of around one hundred partners selected for their old vines. Now run by the Tardieu family, with Bastien Tardieu as cellar master, the house upholds a philosophy of élevage inspired by Burgundy and applied to Rhône terroirs.

The Vineyard

This Cornas comes from the Patou terroir, high on the hillsides, where vines aged between 80 and over 100 years are rooted in the granitic soils typical of the appellation. The winegrowers the house works with favour healthy, environmentally respectful viticultural practices, in keeping with the pursuit of natural concentration characteristic of the old vines in this area.

The Vintage

The 2025 vintage is described by the house as paradoxical and uneven, with the differences in conditions between the northern and southern Rhône Valley having surprised many experienced winegrowers. This variability called for particular vigilance in selecting the plots and grapes destined for this cuvée.

Vinification and Ageing

For the Cornas “Vieilles Vignes” 2025, three quarters of the harvest was vinified as whole bunches. The wine was then aged for 24 months in new and one-year-old barrels of Allier and Tronçais oak, before being bottled without fining or filtration, in keeping with the house's philosophy of minimal intervention.

Grape Variety

This wine is made from Syrah grown on vines aged between 80 and over 100 years.