The Holy Trinity of Syrah: Côte Rotie, Hermitage and Cornas – Milwaukee, October 24

We know these truths to be self-evident: i) The wines of the Northern Rhone Valley are the benchmark by which all other Syrah wines from every other region in the world are measured; ii) The best Northern Rhone appellations for Syrah are Côte Rôtie, Hermitage and Cornas.

We’d like to invite you to one of the highlights of our tasting calendar: Our tasting of the finest wines from the three grandest Syrah appellations of the world — Côte Rôtie, Hermitage and Cornas, the Holy Trinity of Syrah.

If you’ve had any wine from any of these three appellations, you know how glorious they are. Now imagine the splendor of an evening where you’re tasting and comparing, discovering and exploring the breadth and depth of the best wines from all three of these three appellations — the best examples from the best estates of the best Syrah appellations in the world.

Do we even have to say it?

This tasting is going to be ridiculous.

We’ll begin with the Côte Rotie, the most northerly of the vineyards of the Rhone Valley. Its name translates to “roasted slope,” which offers an ideal of how the exposure of its vines to the sun yields the aromatic and rich quality of its wines. We’ll travel south to Hermitage, where vines have been cultivated for 2,500 years, and which renders the most dense, lush and strapping red wines in all of France. And we’ll conclude further south in Cornas, whose wines may be the most exciting, the boldest and the headiest of all three appellations.

If you like wines of great character, if you like wines with noble history, and if you like wines that smack you in the kisser and make you beg for more, then you can’t miss the apparition of the Holy Trinity at Waterford Wine & Spirits.