Alain Voge Cornas Les Vieilles Vignes 2014 750ml Case of 12

This is great Cornas with deep-plum and liquorice fruit, and it's both concentrated and youthful. The purity is staggering, defined by hints of chocolate and pepper that run through pristine dark-plum-fruit flavors. There's also a graphite-like mineral thread and a long core of reliable tannin that builds into a finish oozing potential. Great wine: best from 2022.

Youthful purple. High-pitched, mineral-accented aromas of blackberry, cherry and olive paste are complemented by an incense note and a strong suggestion of smoky Indian spices. Sappy, pliant and alluringly sweet, offering palate-coating black and blue fruit and spicecake flavors and a subtle hint of vanilla. Finishes sweet, focused and extremely long, displaying smoky mineral and floral pastille notes and velvety, slow-building tannins.

Distinctly herbal nose, with liquorice, tarragon and just-ripe blackberry. Medium-bodied, there's a definite fluidity in the wine. Lovely bright mineral side on the finish, with notes of iron and blood too, however you really feel the serrated Cornas tannins. Fresh and ready to drink now. Not the longest finish perhaps, but very true to Cornas. 'It should have been a great vintage,' says Lionel Fraisse, 'there was rain at the right time, sun at the right time - then 200mm of rain, and hail on 21 September.' So there was dilution. From lieux-dits Combe, Patou, La Côte, Tézier, Mazards, Chaillot, old vines of Chapelle St Pierre (the same plots for the cuvée Les Chailles, but further up the slopes). Racked in May, bottled in June, released in the autumn. 20% whole bunch, three weeks maceration, 20 months in oak, 10%-15% new. No Vieilles Fontaine produced in 2014, so this contains the fruit from that vineyard.

Similar in style, yet more backward and concentrated, the 2014 Cornas les Vieilles Vignes (18 months in 15% new French oak) offers impressive amounts of graphite, black and blue fruits, licorice and scorched earth in its medium to full-bodied, concentrated, focused style. It needs 2-3 years of cellaring and will drink well for a decade.

Ripe, bright and racy, this offers a pure expression of plum and black cherry coulis flavors that are inlaid with invigorating white pepper, violet and iron notes. Light chalky threads give the finish needed cut, while the fruit and minerality play out nicely. Best from 2017 through 2029. 1,250 cases made, 67 cases imported.