2015 Cornas Jouvet

Rhône wine lovers familiar with François Villard's work a decade ago will find the same emphasis on depth and intense fruit today, but the wines also convey significantly greater finesse and, more importantly, greater aromatic complexity than in the past. There's a lot of whole-cluster work going on here now, which no doubt adds to the wines' emphatic spiciness, especially in these 2015s. I also find the tannins of Villard's wines to be more harmonious today, and the ripeness has been dialed back as well. There's still plenty of new oak used for the top cuvées, but, again, it's in better harmony with the fruit than I found in Villard's wines from the early to late 2000s - a development that I find highly encouraging.