2013 Domaine Auguste Clape Côtes du Rhône

Community Tasting Notes (16) Avg Score: 90.7 points

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  10/6/2023 - jonnysandwich Likes this wine: 92 Points

  I'm a sucker for Clape's entire line, even the glou-glou "Vin des amis"; this Côtes is priced beneath their young vine-only Renaissance label, but I may prefer it. The marriage of old and young vines is exquisite. Floral, gamey, juicy, and dry--a beautiful blend of bright and dark. Clape's signature olive tapenade flavors are finely represented as well. Ten years old but needed a little time to overcome shyness. Very dark and brooding in the glass...is that cacao nib I taste after an hour plus? After two hours, a tinge of vegetal funk. Truly a Cornas in Côtes' clothing.

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  12/20/2021 - Blair Curtis wrote: 92 Points

  Roaring straight out of the bottle. This is a fantastic syrah. Salty green olive juice, beef carpaccio, blackberry lozenge, tree bark...this is wild and I love it. Tons of material here. Fruit, acid, tannin...a lot of material. Later with more air a delicious note of black licorice/anise appeared. Glad I waited 8 years from the vintage on this...I feel like it is still on the upswing. With another 5-8 years of cellaring, I think you could mistake this blind for a top Cornas or even a rustic Cote Rotie. Already approaching excellent Cornas quality now. I'm about to have this with a grilled strip and I can't wait!

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  1/10/2021 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

  The prices on these are just going up and up. What ever happened to the $20 Clape?
  Well, the icon lends a premium for sure, but it doesn't translate to make the juice any better. It's excellent, indeed, but for the current prices there are many other bottles I'd rather enjoy.
  
  The bouquet on this was amazing with dark berries, raspberries, garrigue, licorice and lots of violets. Upon opening it was very muted but needed a few hours to open.
  First palate had bitter herbs, clean earth and spices with licorice. It was very dry and herbal. Needed a few hours.
  5 hours later, it was very open, plush, soft, energy was there, but it was very gentle. Great balance yet delicate. The herbs were endearing with licorice and violets. There was spicy finish that was short lived. Great drinking but for today’s price of $60, I can think of a lot more choices to hit than this.
  
  My favorite Clape Cotes du Rhone was the 2006.

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  4/25/2020 - jhw425 wrote: 88 Points

  Tasted a little tired but maybe I was just tired!

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  4/10/2020 - acidqueen wrote: 90 Points

  Very nice! Still dense but drinkable now. Black olive, light pepper, dark berry fruit. Still tannins but softening. This will be even better in a few years but I don’t have any more bottles. Too bad.

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