January 11, 2021 - Ready with a few minutes in the glass. Impressive QPR.
Intense cherry on the palate, plus dark fruits. Enjoy.
January 11, 2021 - Gifted.
April 25, 2020 - Decanted 90 minutes before the dinner. On the nose black berries, tobacco and a warm impression, on the palate fresh, round and medium to full bodied, medium+ finish. Quite modern style, perhaps not for the purists, missing the gamey and meaty notes, but was very good with the lamb and would be perfect with BBQ. Ready to drink but may even win an additional point with some more years in the cellar.
April 25, 2019 - The nose of this inky viscous Cornas offers mint, wet wool, black cherry, bay leaf, and a hint of chocolate. Rich, and very ripe, almost more Grenache like than the 100% syrah that it is; some lavender and decent acidity save it from being another homage to a homogenous New world Rhone style: super ripe, high alcohol, pure, highly extracted; the 13.5% alcohol seems closer to 14.5%. Fairly short, dry finish, although tannins are nicely integrated at this point. Ill not try this again for a couple of years. If your benchmarks for Cornas are old school Clape, Verset, and Cuchet-Belliando, this will not make you happy, yet, in its modern Autobahn lane, its quite delicious and well made. For me, great Cornas needs minerality and rusticity; this has neither.
March 21, 2017 - Monthly Tuesday group "The Dead Sparrow" #017: Syrah/Shiraz, France, Australia and South Africa. (By AG): This wine shows cherries, raspberries and some menthol. Yoghurt and lactic flavors. On the palate cherries, blackberries, some licorice, good acidity and tannin. The wine is still too young. Wait until 2019 at least. 87 - 90. 88 for this evening.
January 2, 2017 - Before decanting I was not sure if it's worth, but it improved after three hours and was quite approachable then. Black berries, cherries, garrique and leather in the background that gets more intense with additional time. Good structure with high acidity. Still very young, may improve with some more years of aging.
February 5, 2016 - Thought this was solid. Balanced robust tannins, dark stone fruit/ plums,with a bit of wet stone and light leather
June 1, 2015 - Weekly tasting group #169; South Africa vs France (@ The factory by MN): Dark forest fruits, cherries, chocolate, beautiful oak and some pleasant barnyard in the bouquet. On the palate dark and red berries, a lot of garrigue, beautiful oak, firm but juicy acidity and slightly sticky tannin. The wine is still too young, but my guess is that it will reach early maturity around 2017 and will drink nicely until well into the 2020’s. 89+
April 8, 2015 - Consumed over the course of two days. Nice entry level Cornas. Should continue to improve over time.
March 29, 2015 - Too young to drink even though an overall pleasant Syrah. I will revisit in 3 years. 89 for now.