Marie-Paule Dumazet Cornas Cuvée Charlemagne 2015

Tasting Notes

This is a wine that is quite hard to find - very little is produced and most of it is kept in France for friends of the winery and for selected restaurants. I have managed to get hold of a few cases however.

It's from a boutique wine estate known as Cave Dumazet or Marie-Paule Dumazet located in the Northern Rhone and run by the Dumazet family since 1978. It's run very traditionally - manual cultivation and picking due to very steep terraces in the vineyard and no chemicals added apart from extremely low levels of sulpur dioxide to help preserve the wine. Cornas is the most southerly part of the Northen Rhone and the appellation is for red wines only that must be 100% Syrah or Shiraz. It is comparable to Crozes Hermitage, Hermitage or St Joseph's red wines.

Full tasting notes coming soon but this is a lovely rounded wine with flavours of dark fruits with savoury meaty notes, liquorice, white pepper and spices. Tannins are very soft and the wine very smooth. Lovely!

• Serve at: 16 - 18^oC

Producer's Notes

"Meaty and gamey with loads of olive tapenade, pepper and spiced dark fruit aromas and flavours."

Awards

17 points     JancisRobinson.com   Nov 2019
"Tasted blind. Dark crimson. Refreshing liquorice mix. Soft, caressing tannins on the end. Already broachable – just the ticket!"