Château Grand Corbin 2016

Milk chocolate, glossy dark cherry and fresh plum aromas. Creamy. Generous and opulent with liquorice, warm spice, vanilla, and toasty cedar oak on the palate. Grippy tannins. It is lifted and moreish. It just needs time.

Attractive dark-stone aromas with graphite and ripe dark berries sit fresh on the nose. The palate has a riper feel with very rich, dense fruit presence and a heavier, tannin line weight. Full body. Try from 2022.

The 2016 Grand Corbin has grown into a powerful, dense Saint-Émilion. This is a fairly rich, bombastic style, and yet all the elements fall into place. I would give the 2016 a few years in bottle to allow the tannins to soften, but there is good depth and plenty of potential. A rush of chocolate, leather, licorice, smoke and black cherry meld into the potent finish. Tasted three times with consistent notes.

Flowers, black raspberry, licorice and espresso scents are all over the place. Medium-bodied, but with round, soft, silky textures, there’s a nice jolt of sweet plum and cherry notes on the finish that lingers. Give it about 5 years of age, and this will be an even better wine.

The deep ruby/purple-hued 2016 Château Grand Corbin is another fine 2016 that has plenty of ripe, concentrated fruit yet stays pure, elegant, and layered. Ripe black cherries, currants, green tobacco, and spring flower notes all emerge from this attractive, layered, complex Saint-Émilion that has both freshness and richness.

Kunz barrel sample 17: fruity, velvety, sweet bouquet, redcurrants, red cassis, caramel. Medium-bodied palate with sweet fruit, sandy tannins, muscular structure, dry finish.

Fruity, silky, sweet bouquet, redcurrants, red cassis, caramel. Medium-bodied palate with sweet fruit, sandy tannins, muscular structure, dry finish. 16/20 2023 - 2032

The 2016 Grand Corbin is deep garnet in color. It sashays into the room with provocative notes of kirsch, wild blueberries, and chocolate-covered cherries, plus suggestions of raspberry leaves, tapenade, and iron ore. The full-bodied palate is chock full of expressive black fruits with a velvety texture and lively backbone, finishing long.

No showiness in this discreet, solidly built wine.

Nose of fresh red fruits, small black fruits, blackberry, blueberry. Fresh, fruity palate, lovely mouthfeel, round and creamy tannins, long finish, lots of substance.

Garnet red with purple highlights. The bouquet of Grand Corbin 2016 reveals itself slowly. It needs aeration to express its fullness and complexity. I detect a touch of black berries and spices. On the palate, the body is creamy, graceful, and endowed with dense, suave, fine-grained tannins. They give the wine lovely breadth, while the aromatic character seems somewhat restrained. A wine that needs time to sort out certain details. One to follow as it evolves.

Dark, intense, and beautiful color. Moderately aromatic nose with ripe, pure, creamy, and subtle fruit. The palate opens fairly broad; the wine melts at mid-palate, savory, pleasant, and particularly fruity. It gains body on the finish, sappy and long, with flavor and a touch of austerity, but without any graininess to the tannin. Good length.