2011 Allemand Sans Soufre vs Reynard

We opened the 2011 Allemand Sans Soufre next to the 2011 Allemand Reynard to see how the two wines would compare to one another.

2011 Allemand Cornas Sans Soufre
Popped and poured. Just an immediate bouquet of wild berries and lavender laced with pepper and spices. It’s got an incredible expression of purity - difficult to describe. How can a wine be so savoury, sweet, and concentrated yet still be so elegant and pure? Quite remarkable. It’s just so powerfully aromatic and exotic. The wine displays fine tannins and remarkable freshness and finesse. I haven’t had a lot of experience with older sans soufre from Allemand, but I’m hoping this will age gracefully.

2011 Allemand Cornas Reynard
Popped and poured. While aromatically just as fragrant as the Sans Soufre (SS), it doesn’t quite possess the degree of purity and complexity. Lots of dark fruits, flower notes, and spices mixed with minerals - creating a lovely nose. The Reynard is more chewy and feels more heavy than the SS, but not in an overripe or extracted kind of way. Still young, but it’s a fine wine today that has good depth and balance. Really enjoyed both wines.

Interested to know over what time period you drank these? My working theory is that a sulfured wine will eventually get to the same place as unsulfured after being open for an hour or so (with some decanting/swirling). If you just poured from the bottle and drank glasses over a relatively short time, that might not be enough to air it out completely. But it’s just a theory.

What site do the sans souffre grapes come from? The chewiness you describe in the Reynard has distinguished it from the Chaillot in my (somewhat limited) experience. So it’s hard to know how much of the difference between the two wines you tasted is the winemaking and how much is the fruit. Still, great to taste them side by side!

John, supposedly the SS is the exact same wine as what goes into Reynard labeled bottles, but before sulfuring. As far as I could tell from Allemand’s description when we were there, it is not a specific selection of barrels, lots, or vineyard sections. That’s why these comparisons are so interesting.

John, I believe the sans soufre comes from his Reynard vineyard. In years past, he used to include his Chaillots as well.

Fun tasting! The 14 ss takes the pureness up to a whole other level!

Thanks, Alan and Juyuan. Didn’t he label it as Reynard SS in the beginning? I had recalled that it was Reynard fruit, but figured maybe he had switched at some point.

3 hrs. Two very distinct wines

Interesting. When I open my lone 11 SS, I’ll try to do it together with an 11 Reynard. Who knows, you might even be there!

Just remembered I did this same comparison last year

Blind?

Claus. . . nope, not blind. Looking back however, I think even blinded and you were told that one was SS and one was not, you could pick up the SS based on the nose.

Alan, I actually based my purchase of the 98 Reynard and 11 SS from your notes during your visit! A vertical of the regular Reynard bottling vs SS from the same vintages would be a cool tasting.

jean michel stephan, former assistant at guigal, makes stunning sans soufre cote rotie including a cuvée that is 100% serine. might be interesting to compare with the allemand sans soufre.

sounds like you thought they were different too ;p ;p ;p

01 11 14 in STL?

thought we already confirmed this

Make sure Monster Truck has some to contribute!

I did. But the bottles had just been opened, and we didn’t get several hours to sit and compare them. Which is why I was asking how the wines compared over a longer evolution time.

I’d be down for that! I have an '11 SS.