Jacques Lemenicier

Cornas

If the passion of the winemaker is reflected in their wines, no one can make better wine than Jacques Lemenicier. From his vineyards in Cornas, comes one of the most elegant Syrah that I have ever tasted.

Jacques was 18 years old when a family member suffered a road accident. It so happened that the latter owned a beautiful vineyard. So, 18 year old Jacques Lemenicier dropped out of high school and decided to be a winemaker. He was taken under the wing of none other than Alain Voge.

Jacques spend 10 years under the tutelage of Voge who pushed and challenged the young winemaker. Alain Voge even allowed Jacques to borrow his winery equipment. Jacques modestly admits that he is largely self taught and a lot of this education came at a personal cost. Jacques Lemenicier has made wine for 32 vintages and that has sharpened his intuition both in the vineyard and the cellar. I can for the purpose of salesmanship give you details of how he makes his wines or how incredible his wines are etc, but the honest truth is that little I do has 32 years of working the earth, bearing the vagaries of nature or taking chances for 32 years. I truly take my hat off to Monsieur Jacques Lemenicier. I am grateful that we represent him.  Jacques Lemenicier makes some of most elegant, well structured Syrah from Northern Rhone.

He makes two wines, a Cornas from a 7 acre property that perches precariously on a mountain slope and a 9 acre property that grows Marsanne and Rousanne for his steely St. Peray. Currently we are offering his 2012 Cornas (some of his vines are almost 90 years old, all native yeast and very minimal sulfation) and anticipate the St. Peray in Spring of 2015. This is very close to perfection as far as Syrah gets.