Franck Balthazar 'Cuvée Casimir' Cornas, Rhône Valley, France 2021

Domaine Franck Balthazar was founded in 1931. Managed since 2002 by Franck, who succeeded his father René (who had been in charge since 1950 and supervised the transition to estate bottling in the 1970s). The estate has grown from 2 hectares in 2002 (1 hectare of century-old vines in Chaillot and 1 hectare of vines around 50 years old in Mazard) to around 3.5 hectares today. Plantings on a steep site above Sabarotte were added in 2005 and 2008 on newly formed terraces. Franck Balthazar's objective is to maintain the traditional approach of his grandfather, Casimir.

The vineyards are organic and plowed with a horse, the ferments are whole bunches with native yeasts in concrete vats. To preserve the scent of old vines and high altitude plantations, all the wines are aged in old 600 liter demi-muids. Sulfur is kept to a minimum and all winemaking techniques are as natural as possible.

The Casimir 2021 vintage, named in honor of Grandfather Casimir, comes from old Syrah vines on the granite soils of Mazard in Cornas. Vinification is done in whole clusters with native yeasts, then maceration lasts 13 days. Malolactic fermentation occurs in barrels and aging lasts 18 months in the 600 liter barrels used by Franck Balthazar. This beautiful wine has great aging potential.