2018 Cornas Empreintes
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Tasting notes
Saturated ruby. Pungent black and blue fruit, smoky bacon and licorice aromas, along with exotic spice, mocha and mineral flourishes. Offers juicy, finely etched blueberry, bitter cherry, floral pastille, allspice and cracked pepper flavors deepen steadily with aeration while maintaining energy. Deftly balances power and elegance and finishes extremely long and smooth, with slowly building tannins framing resonating dark fruit, floral and mineral notes.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Cornas Empreintes offers a riper, more concentrated style, delivering lots of plum and darker currant fruits intermixed with notions of smoked herbs, ground pepper, violets, lavender, and spice box. It's rich, full-bodied, and concentrated, yet the tannins here are more present, and it has a closed, angular style that's going to benefit from bottle age. Give bottles 3-4 years at a minimum and it should have a solid decade of longevity after that.
Nearly as good as the Confidence, the Durands' 2018 Cornas Empreintes is more open and approachable, with sexy blueberry, blackberry and vanilla nuances. It's full-bodied, creamy and plush, with a long, vibrant finish.
100% Syrah. Aged for 12 months in oak (20% new). Cask sample. Tasted blind. Stewed fruit which has lost freshness on the nose. Bitter finish, light tannins and something unclean in the mix too. (RH)