2018 Thierry Allemand Cornas Les Chaillots

Looking first at the 2018 Cornas Chaillot, this beauty offers up a supple, medium to full-bodied, impeccably balanced style as well as lively red and black fruits supported by notes of leather, pepper, and violets. This is the younger vine cuvée of the estate and comes from vines averaging upwards of 40 years in age. Not destemmed, it’s vinified in a mix of tank and open top wooden vats and is aged in older barrels. It’s a beautiful, elegant, seamless Cornas that shows the hallmark elegance of this estate.

Brilliant ruby. Intense blackberry and cherry aromas are complicated by suggestions of exotic spices, olive, cracked pepper and pungent flowers. Youthfully chewy, appealingly sweet black and blue fruit flavors deepen and turn spicier with air; a smoky mineral element adds back-end lift and cut. Rounded tannins add subtle grip to an impressively long, floral- and spice-driven finish that leaves salty olive and cola notes behind. All whole clusters.

An expansive bouquet displays mineral-accented black/blue fruit and floral scents that pick up olive paste, smoky bacon and exotic spice nuances with air. In a concentrated yet lively style, offering appealingly sweet cherry, boysenberry, licorice and candied violet flavors supported by a spine of juicy acidity. Shows outstanding clarity and mineral cut on a wonderfully long, floral-driven finish shaped by fine-grained, steadily building tannins.