A deep purple core brightening to a fuchsia rim. The aromatics are well delineated and expressive with savory notes of roasted game, tar and black pepper melding with dark berry and cassis. Showing black fruits and loads of crushed rock, it is reserved and sleek and tightly wound. With time in the glass it picks up weight and a fleshy texture giving generous ripe flavors supported by well integrated tannins and refreshing acidity.

Paris’s entry-level cuvee that comes from some of the lower slopes, the inky colored 2012 Cornas Granite 30 is a great bottle of wine that’s been an incredible value in the past couple of vintages. Classic Cornas, yet with a more approachable feel than the other cuvees, it has lots of wild herbs, saddle leather, garrigue, beef blood and currant-like fruit on the nose. Medium to full-bodied, impressively concentrated and ripe, it stays fresh, nicely focused and has enough structure to evolve for upward of a decade. - Jeb Dunnuck

Wonderfully inviting aroma: pure, expressive cassis and black cherry and just a touch of garrigue. So elegantly structured that you barely notice the fine framework of tannin and acidity. A wine of real beauty and elegance. Echoes of Pinot. But don't come looking for a blockbuster. 17/20 (JH)