Tunnel Cornas 2016

Stephane and Sandrine Robert founded the Domaine du Tunnel only 25 years ago, but today it is often cited as one of the best sources in the town. Vinous regularly scores their top cuvées in the 94-96 range; Alice Feiring calls their wines “rusticity refined,” and recalled after tasting one cuvée: “I dropped to my knees and prayed.”

Tunnel’s 2016 Cornas is classic and excellent. The nose shows inky, woodsy flavors — violets and blackberry mix with underbrush and mushrooms. The fruit is clean, and dense and pure and the finish remarkably long. Josh Raynolds of Vinous awarded 92 points, finding “fine-grained tannins,” and “sharply focused black and blue fruit flavors.” Tunnel uses less oak than many Cornas producers, and so these should be approachable younger than most. But we expect them to begin showing their true stripes in 5-8 years.