#78 Wine Spectator Top 100 (2007 edition - 2004 vintage)
94-Points by Wine Spectator.
This marries old-school Cornas notes of dark bramble, charcoal, olive and bay leaf to more modern-styled and vivid flavors of blackberry, raspberry and boysenberry. Everything flows together seamlessly through the long, detailed finish. Best from 2017 through 2028.
 
Domaine Alain Voge is an organic and biodynamic French wine producer from the northern Rhône Valley. It is best known for its red Syrah wines from Cornas and white wines from Saint-Péray.
The portfolio includes a trio of Cornas reds. Les Chailles is the 'standard' offering, aged for 18 months in 228-liter barrels with no new wood. Les Vieilles Vignes (old vines) has 20 months with 15 to 20 percent new barrels, while Les Vieilles Fontaines has 24 months in barrel with the same prortion of new wood.
The latter is so named because the vineyard is located in an area called La Fontaine (the spring) where a noble family in Cornas sourced their drinking water. The 2010 vintage gained a 100-point rating from Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, the first wine from Cornas to achieve this.
There are also a trio of still white wines from the Saint-Péray appellation, made from the Marsanne grape variety. These begin with Harmonie, a cuvée fermented and aged in concrete vats. Ongrie (previously Cuvée Boisée and then Terres Boisées) is fermented and aged in 228-liter and 400-liter barrels with 30 percent new oak for 13 months on its fine lees.
Fleur du Croussol comes from the oldest vines in the estate and in the Saint-Péray appellation on the granite and limestone soils of the Crussol hills. It is aged as for Ongrie, but for 16 months.
There is also a single red Saint-Joseph and a red Côtes du Rhône. A Traditional Method Marsanne sparkling white Saint-Péray is named Les Bulles d'Alain (Alain's Bubbles).
Vineyards
The estate now boasts 6.5 hectares (16 acres) of 30-year-old Syrah vines in Cornas. It also has 4ha (10 acres) of vineyards in Saint-Péray planted almost entirely to Marsanne.
In total there are 13ha of vineyards, all of which have been certified organic and biodynamic since 2016. Currently massal selection - replacing vines with stocks from the existing vineyard - is a key area of focus.
History
The domaine was established by fourth-generation winemaker Alain Voge (1939-2020), who began working in his father's vineyards in 1958. He began to run the estate in 1965, initially with his mother, after his father's early death. He combined this with running a vine nursery (until 1978) and working as a distiller (until 1980).
Voge inherited several vineyards from his family, and then in the 1980s began expanding on them. While doing so he became a leader in the movement to save Cornas and Saint-Péray from the threat of disappearance as wine regions.