2012 Guillaume Gilles, Cornas, Northern Rhone Red, France.
This is one of my favorite wines, and this vintage of Gilles Cornas is really alive and richly packed with flavor showing the juicy ripe nature of the year and highlighting his gifted touch with Syrah. The 2012, as per normal, 100% Syrah, all whole cluster, natural/native yeast ferment and raised in mostly old casks, in other words, this is a tardily crafted wine with very old school character, but the attention to detail is amazing and everything is poised, finessed and beautifully balanced. The Syrah is from great sites and the terroir shines through with lots of mineral, deep layers and sublime textures, this Guillaume Gilles Cornas is very lovely stuff, I’ve had the Gilles Cornas going back a few years and I loved each and every one of them, and while the 2012 isn’t quite the best year, it still merits top marks and is an exciting thrill of a wine that will not disappoint, and it should get a bit better in the bottle. The 2012 Guillaume Gilles Cornas starts with heady red fruits, camphor, minty herbs, pepper and flinty minerals along with seductive crushed violets, the color is invitingly dark and the palate is dense and deep with blueberry, boysenberry, damson plum and mulberry fruits along with red and white pepper, black olives, melted licorice, cedar notes, dried currants and kirsch. There is a youthful meaty quality throughout with bacon fat, blood/iron in the background in this complex Syrah and there is plenty of vivid acidity to keep the fruit in focus along with a fair amount of grip from fine structural tannin, this wine shows a nice medium/full body and has glorious length. This is a wine to search out and savor, best to rest it a few years in the cellar, patience will always be rewarded in these wines, best from 2018 to 2024.
($75 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive