Auguste Clape - Cornas 2019
Price: $189.99
| Producer | Auguste Clape |
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| Country | France |
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| Region | Cornas |
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| Varietal | Syrah |
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| Vintage | 2019 |
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| Sku | 28737 |
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Jeb Dunnuck: 96 Points
More blue fruits, candied violets, iron, smoked meats, and truffly notes emerge from the 2019 Cornas. A bigger, richer wine, offering full-bodied richness, building, beautiful tannins, and just about flawless balance, it almost reminds me of the 2010, which is just now starting to drink brilliantly.
Vinous: 96 Points
A highly complex bouquet evokes ripe black/blue fruits, candied flowers, olive paste, smoked meat, incense and potpourri, and mineral and earth notes appear as the wine opens up. Stains the palate with intense, spice- and mineral-accented bitter cherry, dark chocolate and violet pastille flavors that show wonderful definition and back-end cut. Velvety, slow-building tannins add shape to an extremely long, subtly chewy finish that delivers real power and mineral drive. (JR)
Wine Advocate: 95 Points
Tremendously dense and powerful, the 2019 Cornas is a dazzling, dark-fruited beast that's loaded with mint, cassis and licorice notes. Full-bodied and almost overflowing with intensity, it somehow manages to pull all that impressive richness and extract into a silky, fine-grained finish of amazing length and elegance. Unless you are hell-bent on trying it on release, give it some time in the cellar—it should be peaking around 2035 or so. I met Olivier Clape in the new grape reception area across the road from the family's cellars, where a small amount of Saint-Péray was being processed. They now have a whole hectare in that appellation, a blend of 80% Marsanne and 20% Roussanne. Harvest had just started here on September 15, so there wasn't yet much else new in the winery. We went back across the road into the cellars for tasting among the old foudres. The 2020 wines surprised me for their concentration and balance. "It was a very early start to the vintage, one of the earliest," said Olivier. With yields down 20% and hot daytime temperatures in July and August, harvest began on August 24, even earlier than in 2003. According to Clape, who worked harvests with Bruce Neyers in California (2006) and Hätsch Kalberer at Fromm in New Zealand (2009), the balance is due to the cool nights, which meant the grapes retained more acidity than in other hot years. After tasting the 2019s and 2018s, we leapt back in time to try the 2011, which Olivier described as
