2012 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard

Community Tasting Notes (57) Avg Score: 94.0 points

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  5/13/2024 - sh6k wrote: 99 Points

  This wine is so beautiful it makes me tear up a little bit.
  
  ^^ that's my summary two hours after opening. Right after opening I thought it was perfectly nice -- slate mineraly, tannic, whiffs of leather, tannic, restrained and pretty -- prettier than the above would suggest, feminine, not like a dusty cowboy, but like a the cowboy's dusty kitten.
  
  After an hour+ decanted it really opened up. Still breathtakingly softly pretty but showing big blueberry / blackcurrant nose with perfumey flowers (violets I suppose?). Again: pretty. Also: tannins completely coat your mouth. But in a pretty way.
  
  After another 30 minutes, anise and pastis joins the show, along with a warm vanilla undertone and really brings the whole package to a fascinating heartbreakingly beautiful place.
  
  What's the source of all this prettiness / beauty? Restraint -- everything is very much in a neat package, nothing wild or sticking out. Perfume -- all the various expressions had a beguiling perfume undercurrent. Soft tannins -- I can't overstate how tannic this was, no need to brush my teeth tonight, but they're so soft and fine it's actually adding to the prettiness. "Little cat feet". Acid -- a wonderful soft juicy acidity that's the furthest thing from harsh or prominent, but is always there keeping things light. And finally, a lightness that I can't express more precisely than just "lightness" and that carries the whole package in a forever finish.
  
  As for the score... I put 97 when I started writing it, but now that I've gone on so long, it seems wrong to leave it that "low". I'm torn because there's nothing about this that's a typical 99 point wine (ie it's not big a brash), but I think I'm sticking with the score for exactly that reason.
  
  (Postscript: after a night in the Wine Squirrel, it was broader, more like grape juice, and some of the prettiness had faded. I won't hold that against the wine but it's a good FYI that you shouldn't decant it for too long).

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  12/24/2023 - d'Artagnan wrote: 93 Points

  Nez charmeur et magnifique texture veloutée. Ce vin est d’une rare élégance pour une appellation davantage connue pour la puissance. Il montre une belle pureté du fruit, de la fraicheur, avec une finale précise, en finesse. C’est excellent, quoique pas d’une immense complexité. 93 pts

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  12/4/2023 - VDLT Wine Likes this wine:

  Off the list at Commander’s Palace. WOW, what a nose. Could’ve kept my nose in the glass all night. Olive and red berries were firing on all cylinders. On the palate, amazing depth and complexity and the fruit is bright and energized. It’s also young and tight so not much evolution over a couple of hours. Too soon but at such a reasonable price, it was well worth it - if only for those incredible aromatics. World class!

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  10/27/2023 - Nanda wrote:

  Northern Rhone Dinner (2012/2005/1998 focus) (Chez Lagragne): Single blind. Well, this wine was all over the place and much of that not in a great way -- nail polish and glossy fruit with at least the perception of vanilla oak. Shrill and tight. One can only hope/believe, this is far too young and needs another 10+ years of cellaring. My #5/5. Guessed Gangloff.

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  10/27/2023 - acyso wrote: 90 Points

  (Mostly) 1998, 2005, 2012 Northern Rhône (Chicago, IL): Served single blind. I think I must have gotten the tannic structure here confused for oak (and somehow thought that the Gangloff would have shown more modern in that sense). So I guessed that this was the Gangloff, when instead it was just a really big wine with plenty of tannin. Dark and somewhat heavy, this was my least favourite wine of the four single-blinded 2012 wines. Go figure.

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