Clape’s 1996 Cornas has taken its sweet time in adding the weight and richness necessary to equal the structural intensity so (in)famous this year. Yet a bottle early last year showed how persuasively 30 years, however circuitous its path, has completed its softening and sweeting work. (Périgords are even more aromatically obvious than cellar-sweetened fruit, in fact to the point one of our tasters remarked that his glass smelled more like a truffle than a truffle smells like a truffle.)
Jancis Robinson perceptively suggests ‘the intriguing scent of old libraries’ as the wine’s defining feature. I love this as the smell of used book stores - 'bibliosmia' being the technical term - frequently comes to mind sniffing away at mature, classically built Cornas. Less ‘old,’ more ‘patina.’
This is recognizably 1996 yet the vintage rarely receives such flattering framing. There is more dexterity, more fluidity and flexibility, a one-of-many impression of generosity. An at-peak pleasure today.
Cheers,
Jason
