2012 Cornas

Wine Details
Place of Origin

France

Cornas

Rhône

Color

Red

Grape/Blend

Syrah

Reviews & Tasting Notes

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Drinking Window

2022 - 2032

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Drinking Window

2020 - 2032

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For the first time since I first visited this cellar back in 1989, I tasted three different vintages, as the malos of the Clapes' 2014s had recently finished when I visited their cellar in December and the 2013s were about to be assembled in preparation for bottling in early January. Pierre Clape took me through the new wines by himself because his son Olivier had to leave to work up in the vineyards where much topsoil had been washed down the hill by heavy rainfall a couple of days earlier. Clape told me that he thinks that the 2014s in Cornas "are quite a bit like the 2012s but because the yields were generous, as in 2013, their structure will be less strict, so more like 2013 in that regard." That means that the '14s "will probably never really close up," he added. Moving quickly to harvest was essential in 2014, he added, because rain and rot were feared in early September, causing the Clapes to "harvest like crazy, in just one week and finishing on the 7th, which was the fastest we've ever moved through the vines and with the most workers ever." While yields were generous in 2013 "many of the grapes were small, so the ratio of juice to skin was pretty good," said Clape, who thinks that while a classic Cornas is best drunk at around 20 years of age, the '13s will be at their best "maybe 10 years" after the vintage. He called 2012 "an elegant year but with structure--a lot like 2004 but with a little more depth." These are wines to hold and drink after the '13s and '14s "but long before the '10s, which are strictly for the cellar."

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Olivier Clape believes that the 2012s have been easy to drink from the very beginning "because it's a vintage that's generous and round. The tannins won't ever be in the way of the fruit, like in 2010," a year that he described as "one of the best that my grandfather and father can remember." He told me that this is truly a golden age for the northern Rhone because "what's considered a weak vintage today would have been considered a success when my grandfather was young." Olivier attributes that to more generally warm growing seasons but also to "more perspective and education, and to building on the experience of our parents and grandparents." He pointed out that things are more controlled now and that much more attention is paid by wineries every step of the way from flowering to bottling: "the vineyard, the harvest, selection in the cellar, more precise bottling, everything. Nothing should happen by accident anymore; there's no excuse." The 2011 Cornas bottlings here show impressive depth and power for the vintage, which Clape describes as "richer than 2008, with an open personality but plenty of material to age for a while." Our conversation led to a discussion of lighter vintages in Cornas, prompting Olivier to open a bottle of his '08, which was putting on an almost Burgundian display of red fruits and flowers, with smoke and licorice notes in the background. It's plenty delicious now but balanced to reward at least another decade of patience. Clape said that a well-made Cornas "can easily age and improve for over ten years, even from a rainy year, especially if the fruit came from old vines on hillsides," which happens to be exactly what his family has at their disposal.