Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas 2018

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 flavors that show outstanding depth and are lifted by a potent mineral flourish. Powerful yet lively in character, delivering solid finishing thrust and closing with noteworthy tenacity and youthfully chewy tannins that build steadily.

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.