2016 Cornas Les Vieilles Fontaines Alain Voge

Galloni 95 points: Dark purple. Deep-pitched cassis, blueberry, candied licorice and violet aromas are complicated by olive and licorice nuances. Broad and expansive on the palate, offering deeply concentrated black and blue fruit liqueur, spicecake and floral pastille flavors and an incense-tinged flourish of smoky minerals. Becomes sweeter and more energetic with air and finishes extremely long and spicy, with slow-building tannins and lingering florality.

Jeb Dunnuck 98 points: The inky colored 2016 Cornas Les Vieilles Fontaines is the flagship of the estate and comes from the La Fontaine lieu-dit. It sees a longer maceration and between 15-20% new barrels. It offers a powerful, concentrated, incredibly textured style as well as lifted notes of cassis and blueberry fruits, ground pepper, violets, and graphite, with subtle background new oak in the background. It's full-bodied, rich, and sexy, with tons of glycerin and fat, yet still manages to hold onto its classic Cornas character. As always, this cuvée shines for its richness and depth, yet has fabulous purity as well. Only made in top vintages (it was previously made in 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2015), it needs 2-4 years of bottle age but will keep for upwards of two decades. It's another rich, incredibly powerful Cornas from 2016 that checks in near the top of the vintage.

Wine Spectator 97 points: Dark and winey, with a large core of steeped plum and blackberry fruit, infused liberally with sage, sweet tapenade, bay leaf and violet notes. The long finish pulls everything together into a dense but defined beam. Best from 2022 through 2040. From France. —JM

Organically certified according to FR-BIO-01