Great condition bottle. Pronounced elegant whilst rustic, peppery, leathery, spicy nose with a little mushroom and funk. Delicious and juicy palate with very long finish. Magnificent
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
A beautiful powerful yet refined Northern Rhone. Loads of pepperiness and deep red fruits. The complexity is amazing as different flavours and attributes come through.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
I have little to add to my TN of a bottle of 2 years ago other than that I find this even better than a recent very good bottle of Clape's 96; richer, fresher and better integrated. Excellent.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Highly enjoyable once it had time to settle down. After a few hours, this showed layers of crunchy dark fruit. Very vibrant wine and it has this alluring cool-inflected character. I expect the savory elements to become more prominent as this gains additional complexity. Not sure this will ever be grand but it will be very attractive for a long time.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
had a bottle of the 96 last week that was super bright and nutty. This one had a reduced nose and had some spritz. After about a hour that spritz became this super lively bright fruit core. Cool acid and clean seamless fruit. Didn’t have the fullness of last week, but far more precision. Seemed this bottle was showing much more youthful than the last. Both were delicious just in different phases.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Burgundy and Rhone: Briar and stalky, with menthol and ash - the vegetable and herbal elements definitely stand out on this bottle, a little too much for my preference. On the palate the texture is holding up well and there is a bright note to it. Lacks a bit in complexity, especially next to the 1996 Chaillot tonight.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
This was a great bottle of Cornas. Deep colour with rust tints especially during pour. Expressive nose of sour cherry, violets, grilled meat, rusty metal, earthy minerals, varnish and wet leather. Full/medium bodied palate still burgeoning but mature fruit replaying the aromas from the nose, roundness and depth with lively acidity and gentle but firm backbone with now discreet tannins. Excellent.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Dinner with the SLDS at Mark's: Stalks, smoked meat, cherry, blackcurrant and olive aromas. The palate is very good, there is balance and real detail to the fruit, it is restrained in nature and gives you plenty of opportunity to look at each element of it. Good texture and style.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
This comes across riper and more powerful than I recall. It's a bigger, more brooding wine than the Verset with lots of red and dark fruit framed by meat and smoky elements, also showing a fair bit of tannin and suggesting it needs more time.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
France 2013 – Northern Rhone; 4/17/2013-4/19/2013 (Ampuis): Tasted at the Domaine. Beautiful nose with lots of poopy notes, olive tapenade, dark fruits, salty meats and hints of bell pepper. Savory on the palate but with a touch more weight and polish than the ’96 Clape. Also seems more youthful than the Clape with less rusticity and more finesse. Based on this bottle this needs another 5 years before hitting its peak. Excellent. 92+
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Northern Rhone WIMPS (The Ledbury, Notting Hill, London): Lovely developed, aromatic Syrah nose showing bloody meat, bacon, black olive. Medium/full on the palate, bloody black fruits, black olive, vibrant acidity, soft tannins, very good length, harmonious finish. Excellent. ****1/2.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
This is so good. Exactly what you want and expect from Cornas. Superb nose, black olives, violet and blackberry. Somehow masculine yet elegant. Showing perfect balance on the palate with depth. Some meaty notes as well. Merci Mr Allemand !
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Grand Sichuan (St. Marks Place Grand Sich, NY): First bottle was corked, but the backup was outstanding. A thrilling aromatic profile with bloody, meaty, violet and peppery scents combining into a great fragrance, though the palate doesn't show quite the same complexity just yet- there's pure dark fruit tinged with more savoury and meaty characteristics, but it doesn't have quite the 'wow' factor of the aromatics which seem more developed right now.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Even better than the bottle I opened last month. This has it all; layers of pure dark fruit, meatiness, florality, developing savoury and leathery elements, all combining seamlessly into a fragrant, polished whole that manages to convey both a sense of rusticity and remarkable finesse at the same time. Outstanding.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
An immediate wow from the scent alone, which is that typical Allemand fragrance of meat, violets and pure red and dark fruits with savoury iron, saline and smoky tinges. There's a sense of rusticity and power here with some grainy tannin on the back end and bright acids that keep it very fresh; it still comes across very youthful with the fruit quite bright and fresh and seems to have a lot of time ahead, though it's drinking incredibly well now.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
amazing how this has come around from years ago when it was tight and pure olives...now broader and richer but still plenty of N Rhone funk and olive.....a pretty wine for those who like the style and region
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
This wine is in an absolutely excellent place right now, off the hook good with 60 mins of Oxygen. Mr Allemand creates some of his best wines in 'off' vintages (believe Kermit) (the '02 is the best wine of the vintage). After said hour I could not pull my nose out of this glass, it was absolutely singing in all of its glorious Northern Rhone-ness--pepper, violets, meat, leather, black fruit, white flowers. Upon taking the wine into the mouth, this is absolutely gorgeous, with a mouthfeel that lies perfectly half-way between water and oil, and a palate that mimics the nose. Go to town on this wine, it is in a good place. However, if you truly enjoy old bones, this one will get there, no problem.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
This was a wine that by the end of the bottle I wished it was a Magnum. What a brilliant wine this is. A really dark personality, not impenetrable but almost unnerving in its Sauvage like character which in the end is quite compelling. Its got tannins like a rockclimbers arms, powerful but never overbearing. The devil is in the detail and this wine is so intriguing that you never stop thinking about it. Immensely satisfying with many idiosyncrasies and a big step up from the last bottles I've had.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
A little green on the nose but very fresh and lively with that elusive spice in the background. A beautiful wine given the vintage maybe not as complex as other years but wild and interesting all the same.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Intensely phenolic/barnyard dominated aromas, leans toward the pleasantly green/herbal with lifted ground green peppercorn. Palate has intense, bright red fruits with nice fresh, high acidity and intensely savory, smoky/bacony flavors. There's some dark, saline minerality and moderate length. Seems to be mature or close to it, with nearly resolved tannins and still a nice core of bright, fresh red fruits. Drink and hold, but I suggest soonish (2-3 yr?) if you like some fruit with your savory bits.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Dinner at Rue Cler with Steve, Barb & Bill H. Light purple in color, this was very similar to a bottle 2 months prior. The essence of olives. Very meaty and a really nice match for the lamb tenderloin with an amazing side dish of shepherd's pie. This wine is definitely a pointe right now - nicely resolved but still showing nice fruit and structure. 50+13+12+8+8 = 91
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
New Year's Eve at Steve & Barb's house. Purple in color, this wine was the essence of black olives. Nice richness on the palate. Not really any of the Cornas rusticity but plenty of Cornas typicity. Medium plus length on the finish. A very good match with Steve's homemade mushroom and goat cheese ravioli. 50+13+12+8+8 = 91
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
5/14/2022 - Bullethead Likes this wine: 97 Points
Great condition bottle. Pronounced elegant whilst rustic, peppery, leathery, spicy nose with a little mushroom and funk. Delicious and juicy palate with very long finish. Magnificent
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
8/4/2021 - cfk49 wrote: 97 Points
Phenomenal bottle with smoke, meat, density, definition. Cellared since original release.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
12/31/2020 - dhtabor Likes this wine: 98 Points
A beautiful powerful yet refined Northern Rhone. Loads of pepperiness and deep red fruits. The complexity is amazing as different flavours and attributes come through.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
10/27/2018 - eboracum Likes this wine: 94 Points
I have little to add to my TN of a bottle of 2 years ago other than that I find this even better than a recent very good bottle of Clape's 96; richer, fresher and better integrated. Excellent.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
7/12/2018 - rc@ughey wrote:
Highly enjoyable once it had time to settle down. After a few hours, this showed layers of crunchy dark fruit. Very vibrant wine and it has this alluring cool-inflected character. I expect the savory elements to become more prominent as this gains additional complexity. Not sure this will ever be grand but it will be very attractive for a long time.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
6/21/2018 - clayfu wrote:
had a bottle of the 96 last week that was super bright and nutty. This one had a reduced nose and had some spritz. After about a hour that spritz became this super lively bright fruit core. Cool acid and clean seamless fruit. Didn’t have the fullness of last week, but far more precision. Seemed this bottle was showing much more youthful than the last. Both were delicious just in different phases.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
6/14/2018 - alanr wrote: 94 Points
Wow. Excellent dark fruit, great structure and balance, excellent acidity, quite youthful, pure and tasty.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
1/17/2017 - CamWheeler wrote: 88 Points
Burgundy and Rhone: Briar and stalky, with menthol and ash - the vegetable and herbal elements definitely stand out on this bottle, a little too much for my preference. On the palate the texture is holding up well and there is a bright note to it. Lacks a bit in complexity, especially next to the 1996 Chaillot tonight.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
7/10/2016 - eboracum Likes this wine: 94 Points
This was a great bottle of Cornas. Deep colour with rust tints especially during pour. Expressive nose of sour cherry, violets, grilled meat, rusty metal, earthy minerals, varnish and wet leather. Full/medium bodied palate still burgeoning but mature fruit replaying the aromas from the nose, roundness and depth with lively acidity and gentle but firm backbone with now discreet tannins. Excellent.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
12/6/2014 - CamWheeler wrote: 91 Points
Dinner with the SLDS at Mark's: Stalks, smoked meat, cherry, blackcurrant and olive aromas. The palate is very good, there is balance and real detail to the fruit, it is restrained in nature and gives you plenty of opportunity to look at each element of it. Good texture and style.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
1/24/2014 - salil wrote: 91 Points
This comes across riper and more powerful than I recall. It's a bigger, more brooding wine than the Verset with lots of red and dark fruit framed by meat and smoky elements, also showing a fair bit of tannin and suggesting it needs more time.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
4/17/2013 - godx wrote: 92 Points
France 2013 – Northern Rhone; 4/17/2013-4/19/2013 (Ampuis): Tasted at the Domaine. Beautiful nose with lots of poopy notes, olive tapenade, dark fruits, salty meats and hints of bell pepper. Savory on the palate but with a touch more weight and polish than the ’96 Clape. Also seems more youthful than the Clape with less rusticity and more finesse. Based on this bottle this needs another 5 years before hitting its peak. Excellent. 92+
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
9/26/2012 - Paul D wrote:
Northern Rhone WIMPS (The Ledbury, Notting Hill, London): Lovely developed, aromatic Syrah nose showing bloody meat, bacon, black olive. Medium/full on the palate, bloody black fruits, black olive, vibrant acidity, soft tannins, very good length, harmonious finish. Excellent. ****1/2.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
6/10/2012 - french16 wrote:
This is so good. Exactly what you want and expect from Cornas. Superb nose, black olives, violet and blackberry. Somehow masculine yet elegant. Showing perfect balance on the palate with depth. Some meaty notes as well.
Merci Mr Allemand !
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
5/9/2012 - salil wrote: 93 Points
Grand Sichuan (St. Marks Place Grand Sich, NY): First bottle was corked, but the backup was outstanding. A thrilling aromatic profile with bloody, meaty, violet and peppery scents combining into a great fragrance, though the palate doesn't show quite the same complexity just yet- there's pure dark fruit tinged with more savoury and meaty characteristics, but it doesn't have quite the 'wow' factor of the aromatics which seem more developed right now.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
2/13/2012 - salil wrote: 94 Points
Even better than the bottle I opened last month. This has it all; layers of pure dark fruit, meatiness, florality, developing savoury and leathery elements, all combining seamlessly into a fragrant, polished whole that manages to convey both a sense of rusticity and remarkable finesse at the same time. Outstanding.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
1/21/2012 - salil wrote: 93 Points
An immediate wow from the scent alone, which is that typical Allemand fragrance of meat, violets and pure red and dark fruits with savoury iron, saline and smoky tinges. There's a sense of rusticity and power here with some grainy tannin on the back end and bright acids that keep it very fresh; it still comes across very youthful with the fruit quite bright and fresh and seems to have a lot of time ahead, though it's drinking incredibly well now.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
5/15/2011 - Mr T wrote:
amazing how this has come around from years ago when it was tight and pure olives...now broader and richer but still plenty of N Rhone funk and olive.....a pretty wine for those who like the style and region
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
2/25/2011 - Why Yes wrote: 96 Points
This wine is in an absolutely excellent place right now, off the hook good with 60 mins of Oxygen. Mr Allemand creates some of his best wines in 'off' vintages (believe Kermit) (the '02 is the best wine of the vintage). After said hour I could not pull my nose out of this glass, it was absolutely singing in all of its glorious Northern Rhone-ness--pepper, violets, meat, leather, black fruit, white flowers. Upon taking the wine into the mouth, this is absolutely gorgeous, with a mouthfeel that lies perfectly half-way between water and oil, and a palate that mimics the nose. Go to town on this wine, it is in a good place. However, if you truly enjoy old bones, this one will get there, no problem.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
11/19/2010 - AJ72 wrote: 94 Points
This was a wine that by the end of the bottle I wished it was a Magnum. What a brilliant wine this is. A really dark personality, not impenetrable but almost unnerving in its Sauvage like character which in the end is quite compelling. Its got tannins like a rockclimbers arms, powerful but never overbearing. The devil is in the detail and this wine is so intriguing that you never stop thinking about it. Immensely satisfying with many idiosyncrasies and a big step up from the last bottles I've had.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
5/6/2010 - AJ72 wrote: 88 Points
A little green on the nose but very fresh and lively with that elusive spice in the background. A beautiful wine given the vintage maybe not as complex as other years but wild and interesting all the same.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
12/11/2009 - AJ72 wrote: 85 Points
This was good but a bit on the lean side. Not as intensely flavoured as other vintages. Tannins fine but starting to dry out a bit.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
9/10/2009 - 5laton wrote: flawed
This bottle was badly out of condition, unfortunately, perhaps microbial. Wine streaked up the cork, nearly a leaker, suggesting maltreatment.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
7/28/2009 - 5laton wrote: 92 Points
Intensely phenolic/barnyard dominated aromas, leans toward the pleasantly green/herbal with lifted ground green peppercorn. Palate has intense, bright red fruits with nice fresh, high acidity and intensely savory, smoky/bacony flavors. There's some dark, saline minerality and moderate length. Seems to be mature or close to it, with nearly resolved tannins and still a nice core of bright, fresh red fruits. Drink and hold, but I suggest soonish (2-3 yr?) if you like some fruit with your savory bits.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
3/4/2008 - JeffGMorris wrote: 91 Points
Dinner at Rue Cler with Steve, Barb & Bill H. Light purple in color, this was very similar to a bottle 2 months prior. The essence of olives. Very meaty and a really nice match for the lamb tenderloin with an amazing side dish of shepherd's pie. This wine is definitely a pointe right now - nicely resolved but still showing nice fruit and structure. 50+13+12+8+8 = 91
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
12/31/2007 - JeffGMorris wrote: 91 Points
New Year's Eve at Steve & Barb's house. Purple in color, this wine was the essence of black olives. Nice richness on the palate. Not really any of the Cornas rusticity but plenty of Cornas typicity. Medium plus length on the finish. A very good match with Steve's homemade mushroom and goat cheese ravioli. 50+13+12+8+8 = 91
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
9/27/2006 - MartyL wrote:
classic Northern Rhone nose of earth and meat, good acidity and altogether delicious. Ready to drink.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment