Wine Advisor
Auguste Clape, Cornas 2014
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Bright purple. Powerful, smoke-accented black and blue fruit, candied flowers, licorice, olive and Indian spices on the deeply perfumed nose. Sappy, concentrated and seamless on the palate, offering alluringly sweet blackberry, cherry compote, violet pastille and spicecake flavors that show excellent clarity and mineral lift. Expressive and surprisingly lithe given its depth, finishing with building tannins and impressive, blue-fruit-dominated persistence.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Brilliant purple. Powerful, mineral-tinged cherry and blackberry scents, along with notes of bacon fat, licorice, potpourri and pungent flowers. Pure, concentrated and energetic on the palate, offering deeply concentrated black and blue fruit flavors that gain weight and become sweeter with air. Closes extremely long, sappy and sweet, juicy acidity adding lift and cut to the blue-fruit-dominated, youthfully tannic finish.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Tasted in components: #1, from Sabarotte: Deeply pitched black and blue fruit aromas and flavors, with notes of licorice and black cardamom adding complexity. Chewy and broad, finishing with strong thrust and firming tannins. #2, from La Côte: Dark berries and cherry pit on the nose, with a peppery quality adding lift. Sappy and concentrated, offering bitter cherry and cassis flavors that stretch out slowly on the finish. #3, from old vines in Reynard: Explosively perfumed scents of candied black and blue fruits, Indian spices and potpourri. Sappy and sweet, with intense boysenberry and violet pastille flavors and a strong jolt of spiciness. Finishes with gripping tannins and an echo of fresh flowers.
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014s are more elegant, silky and streamlined, yet offer classic characters and will evolve gracefully. Similar to the Renaissance, with tons of cedary spice, pepper, iron, beef blood, crushed rock and new saddle leather, the 2014 Cornas is medium to full-bodied, nicely concentrated and structured, with ripe, present tannin. It needs 2-4 years of cellaring and will have 10-15 years of longevity.-
About the Producer
Domaine Auguste Clape is located in the Rhone Valley region of France. The estate was founded by the Clape Family and is now run by Pierre-Marie Clape and Oliver Clape. Château Auguste Clapa now has 8 hectares of vineyards, all on terraces within the Colnas appellation. Due to the steep terrain of the vineyards, plantation management is carried out by hand. There are no formal rules for the vineyard, but rather the most traditional planting patterns, based on intuition, experience and common sense. The vineyard soil is mainly granite and clay, and the main grape varieties are Syrah and Marsanne, with an average vine age of 40 years. The grapes are hand-picked and carefully selected before being used in the production of the wines. The must for the Domaine Auguste Clape Saint-Peray Blanc is fermented in concrete tanks and, after fermentation, the wine is matured in stainless steel tanks for 8 months. The must for the red wines is fermented in large wooden vats and the length of fermentation is usually 12 days. Of these, the Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas and the Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas Renaissance are matured for 22 months in 600 litre or 1,200 litre vats. The Domaine Auguste Clape Cote du Rhone and the Domaine Auguste Clape Le Vin des Aims are matured for 6 months in concrete tanks and large wooden barrels respectively.
