2015 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas

The grand vin of the estate is the 2015 Cornas, and it's even more inky colored than the Renaissance, with a saturated purple/bluish color. It offers a truly profound bouquet of black cherries, melted asphalt, ground pepper, exotic flowers and graphite, as well as the classic iodine/bloodiness I always find in this cuvée. Full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and seamless, with sweet tannin and a stacked mid-palate, it has an almost Hermitage-like liquid rock character, shocking elegance and purity, and a huge finish. This is Cornas at its finest – hats off to the Clape family! (JD) Review Date: 01/2018

This has it all, from the dark, dense core of steeped fig, blackberry and black currant fruit to the smoldering charcoal, dark olive and singed bay leaf notes. Violet and white pepper nuances add lift before a prodigious warm cast-iron element provides spine on the finish. A brick house that will live for quite some time. *Top 100 Wines of 2018, Collectibles* (JM) Review Date: 11/2018