I had arranged this visit at Domaine du Tunnel with owner/ winemaker Stéphane Robert in Washington DC, at La Paulée by Elite Wines at Restaurant 2941 in Northern Virginia: Celebrating 20 Years of Elite Wines with 40 Producers and 4 Chefs, Washington DC, USA
While we were there, they were in the process of bottling. Still, Stéphane Robert gave us some time for a tasting and a visit of the "tunnel", i.e. the winemaking facilities. We started by tasting 5 wines and then moved to the tunnel.
It was in 1994 when Stéphane Robert founded the Domaine du Tunnel with just 6 acres of vineyards in Saint-Peray and Cornas. This is an area in the southern tip of the right bank of the Northern Rhône wine region, famous through history and in France for making particularly excellent white wines and of course red wines.
Since then Stéphane Robert has forged a reputation as one of the leading wine producers of this region. Today he farms about 30 acres in several right bank municipalities as far north as Chavanay. The vineyards are located on hillsides or terraces on granite soils. This requires that all of the work in the vineyards and the harvest are done manually.
The estate has been certified as “High Environmental Value” work in the Rhône. The name of the Domaine refers to an old train tunnel that the owner refurbished, and which is used as facility for winemaking and maturation.
Domaine du Tunnel
(Lay and Wheeler)
Stéphane Robert is regarded as a rising star in Cornas amongst Rhône producers and wine critics alike. He started his domaine in 1996, when he was in his mid-twenties, and has added parcels over the years. He now holds 13 hectares of Syrah, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier vines split across Cornas, Saint-Péray, Saint-Joseph and more recently, Condrieu. He named his domaine after his quirky cellar, which lies in a 170m long converted railway tunnel which was once used by steam trains and is now home to this increasingly important Cornas domaine. As it spans two levels, much of the work can be accomplished by gravity, reflecting Stéphane’s winemaking ethos. Everything is done sensitively, with the aim of expressing the fine terroir of his vineyards. Grapes are hand harvested, he vinifies parcels separately and uses oak sparingly. In the case of his superb Pur Noir, a single parcel made only in the best years, the parcel changes each time according to Stéphane’s preference.
Domaine du Tunnel
(Cavetocellar)
A rising star in Rhône wines, Stéphane Robert of Domaine du Tunnel may be soft-spoken, but his wines shout excellence. Although he only began his domaine in 1994, he has already won numerous awards and has been written up in prestigious wine-connoisseur magazines such as Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, Decanter, etc.
After training at Domaine Jean-Louis Grippat, a domaine known for its Saint-Josephs, Stéphane Robert and his wife, Sandrine, purchased their own domaine, which spans Saint-Joseph, Saint-Péray, and Cornas. They named it “du Tunnel”, after the 500-foot stone tunnel that runs beneath the land.
Work in the vineyards is done by hand, with occasional help from a horse and a winch. Harvests are carefully hand-sorted for quality, then taken for vinification.
Nearly all Robert’s wines — red and white — are vinified in stainless steel vats, then raised for 14-month in oak barrels. Interventions are kept to a minimum during vinification, to better express the characteristic intensity and fruit of the vines.
Robert’s vinification of Cornas is unique, and includes keeping the stems on 10-50% of the grapes (instead of completely destemming), before subjecting the grapes to fermentation and punch-downs.
According to Decanter Magazine, thanks to Robert’s process, “no Cornas seemed to evoke the undergrowth and wild plants up on the hill better than this one”.
We first met Stéphane Robert at the wine fair in Chavannay in December 2012 — little did we know his wines are quietly becoming a reference for their appellations! Robert’s wines are strong and full-bodied, good for long cellaring. And their stunning complexity literally took our breath away.
Bye-bye
Thanks for a great visit.
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