2015 Cornas Vin Noir
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The 2015 Cornas Vin Noir is just about pure perfection and ranks with the handful of finest Cornas out there. Always from a mix of three different terroirs and with a touch of stems (there’s 30% in the 2015), it has a brilliant bouquet of pure cassis and blackberry fruit as well as notes of bouquet garni, iron, smoked game, and flowers. While it brings plenty of power and classic Cornas wildness, it’s the purity, elegant, and finesse that set it apart.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
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The 2015 Cornas Vin Noir, from 100-year-old vines, is a tour de force. Crushed stone and violets set the stage for this full-bodied wine that’s loaded with cassis and plum fruit but hemmed in tightly by firm tannins. Give it at least 7 years of rest in a cool cellar. At the caveau price of 40 euros, it’s a bargain.
Opaque ruby. An expansive, complex bouquet evokes ripe blueberry, cassis, potpourri and olive paste, and a smoky mineral nuance gains power as the wine opens up. Shows impressive depth as well as vivacity on the palate, offering sweet black and blue fruit and violet flavors that are braced and lifted by a spine of juicy acidity. Distinctly lithe for its depth and power, finishing on a youthfully tannic note, with excellent clarity and thrust.
Dark purple. Expansive aromas of blueberry preserves, black pepper, violet and spicecake, and hints of olive and cola in the background. Fleshy and broad on the palate, offering deeply concentrated black and blue fruit and floral pastille flavors lifted and brightened by a smoky mineral nuance. Chewy and appealingly sweet on the strikingly long, floral finish, which is framed by sneaky, fine-grained tannins.