Thierry Allemand

Today, there is no more unique figure in the Northern Rhône than Cornas’ Thiérry Allemand.  Though not yet in his 50s, he has been mythologized in much the same way as past greats like Noël Verset, Marius Gentaz and August Clape. He created his domaine from scratch, inheriting nothing from his ancestors. And because he also didn’t have a family fortune behind him, much of his domaine was assembled by laboriously restoring abandoned parcels in ...

Today, Thiérry stands—along with Auguste Clape’s son Pierre-Marie—as the greatest link to Cornas’ glorious past. He has stepped into a vacuum created by the retirement of both Versets as well as both Michels. 

Yet, Thiérry is a disciple of no one’s. He is a fiercely independent-minded man who was fortunate to work with, and learn from, the greats from the past. Rather than aping their ideas, he learned from them, and added a few of his own....

Because of the complexity of Thiérry’s story—and the fact that he is taciturn when it comes to talking about it—most of what has been written about Thiérry is incomplete. One of the best profiles can be found at wineterroirs.com. But even here, Bert Celce describes Thiérry’s work as a domaine bottler beginning in 1991: “He began to sell the wine to the négoce in 1987, until 1991 when the négociants refused to pay him the 32 Francs/liter (about...