2001 Cornas Les Ruchets

Good medium ruby. Expressive, superripe aromas of blackberry, strawberry, violet and chocolatey, spicy oak. Dense and sweet but also vinous and penetrating, with dark berry and spicy oak flavors and a distinctly saline quality. Generous, pliant and chewy. Finishes with sweet, very fine tannins and good peppery Cornas character. This is aged in 90% new barrels but the oak adds sweetness without overwhelming the wine's soil character.

Produced from 80-100 year old vines, the 2001 Cornas Les Ruchets exhibits tremendous density and richness in its blackberry, cassis, mineral, pepper, licorice, and espresso-scented bouquet and flavors. Richly textured and moderately tannic, it will be at its finest between 2005-2014. The irrefutable modernist of the Rhone Valley, the well-known oenologist Jean-Luc Colombo continues to fine tune his winemaking. His barrel-aged Cornas cuvees are among the most progressively made offerings of the appellation, revealing no rusticity and supple tannin. Colombo practices cold soaks as well as other cutting edge techniques (i.e., micro-oxygenation) in order to subdue the substantial tannins of Cornas. Importer: Palm Bay International, Port Washington, NY; tel. (516) 802-4700.

(90% new oak) Red-ruby. Youthfully raw aromas of red raspberry, fresh herbs, flowers and bitter chocolate. Sweet, rich and pliant; bitter chocolate and red berry flavors are perked up by herbal and mineral notes. Broad tannins hit the palate late, but grew increasingly oaky, even a tad dry, with aeration. This wine has a track record of absorbing its oak with aging, so my projected range may prove to be overly conservative.