2017 Cornas Patou
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Tasting notes
Bright purple. Lush dark berry and floral scents are complicated by suggestions of olive and exotic spices. Broad and fleshy on the palate, offering sweet black and blue fruit flavors that slowly tighten up through the back half. Finishes with impressive persistence, delivering round, velvety tannins that frame the wine's appealingly sweet dark fruit and floral pastille notes.
Critic scores
Average Score
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Raw, confected fruit with lots of sweaty herbal notes. Not good. (RH)
The 2017 Cornas Patou from Dumien Serrette spent 12-15 months in older French oak barrels, most being 7+ years in age. This inky colored beauty is one of the more concentrated, tannic, structured wines in the vintage. Currants, blackberries, crushed rocks, chocolate, and graphite notes all flow to a full-bodied, serious, backward and inward Cornas that has loads of potential. Don't even think about drinking this until 4-5 years after the vintage.
This microproducer draws fruit from 80-year-old vines in the lieu-dit of Patou. The 2017 Cornas Patou is full-bodied and intense, with an attractive dusty texture of chalk dust, charcoal and crushed stone. Red currant and cassis aromas and flavors complement those stony elements, picking up a bit of cracked pepper on the finish.