Franck Balthazar Cuvee Casimir Cornas 2021

Franck Balthazar farms just over four hectares of Cornas much as his grandfather Casimir did when he founded the domaine in 1931: a horse still works many of the parcels, chemical treatments are long gone, and fermentations run whole-cluster with native yeasts in concrete before the wines rest in old 600 liter demi-muids, kept because they hold Cornas perfume better than small barrels. Cuvée Casimir honors that grandfather, drawing mostly from La Lègre, a steep granite slope planted in the early 2000s, filled out with vines in Les Mazards dating to 1961, and bottled without fining or filtration. It is the cellar's most approachable wine, vibrant and peppery, red fruit running over granite. Old-school Cornas from one of the appellation's true traditionalists.