Auguste Clape - Cornas 2018 (750ml)
Price: $195.00
| Producer | Auguste Clape |
| Country | France |
| Region | Rhone |
| Varietal | Syrah |
| Vintage | 2018 |
| Sku | 1416095 |
| Size | 750ml |
Vinous: 96-97 Points
Spice- and mineral- accented dark berry smoky bacon and floral pastille scents show excellent delineation and pick up deeper licorice and olive paste notes with air. Sappy and expansive in the mouth offering juicy boysenberry bitter cherry and spicecake fl
Wine Advocate: 97 Points
Bottled late in 2020 the 2018 Cornas is another exceptional vintage for this cuvée drawn from the family's older vines largely in the lieux-dits of La Côte Sabarotte and Reynard. Yes it's from a hot sunny vintage it's rich and ripe with plenty of red plum fruit up front but there's a solid underpinning of crushed stone to provide balance. Full-bodied and velvety in feel in the mouth it lingers elegantly on the lengthy finish. Complete balanced and fine it should drink well through at least 2040. 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 "a vintage everyone forgot. A big crop but good acidity. Very fine." The bottle we tried was certainly drinking well as was the even more impressive 2001?20 years after the vintage. This family estate continues to produce one of the benchmark wines of the appellation. Prices have risen but the quality is in the bottle and the Vin de France Le Vin des Amis and Côtes du Rhône offerings provide less expensive alternatives that give consumers delicious introductions to Northern Rhône Syrah.
Jeb Dunnuck: 94-96+ Points
The flagship comes largely from the Reynard lieu-dit (unquestionably one of the finest vineyards in the appellation) and the oldest vines of the estate. The lots destined for this cuvée offered another level of richness and depth with more opulence and decadence than most recent vintages. Full-bodied concentrated and tannic on the palate it’s going to require patience. The 2015 was even more tannic and backward at this stage but there’s more than a touch of greatness in this beauty. Pierre-Marie Clape and his son Olivier continue to make some of the most impressive (as well as singular) wines in the world from their tiny cellar in Cornas. This is a bastion of traditional winemaking and the wines are not destemmed see long fermentations and aging in ancient barrels and casks. While they didn’t release a Renaissance cuvée in 2017 due to tiny yields their Cornas is stunning stuff not far off what was achieved in 2010 and 2015. I suspect the 2018 will match or exceed the 2017.
