Jean-Luc Colombo : La Louvée 2018

Summer-like scents of crushed stone, dusty roads, dried herbs and wild blackberries appear on the nose of the 2018 Cornas la Louvee. Looking much better from bottle than a pre-bottling sample I tasted in Cornas, it avoids any sense of jammy excess. Medium to full-bodied, it's supple and ripe, smooth and easy to drink, with a long, silky finish that adds savory hints of beef and anise.

This red delivers an impressive rush of steeped blueberry and black cherry compote flavors, lined with subtle bay leaf, warm earth and sweet tapenade notes. There's a floral hint to add lift on the finish, along with ample grip for the cellar. Best from 2023 through 2036. 330 cases made, 75 cases imported.

Opaque violet color. Expressive black and blue fruit, violet and licorice aromas show fine clarity and pick up hints of woodsmoke and cracked pepper as the wine opens up. Juicy and appealingly sweet, offering pliant boysenberry, cherry and spicecake flavors with a touch of smoky bacon. The floral note reappears on the gently tannic finish, which hangs on with strong, spicy persistence. 20% new oak.

Leafy with green olive, smoked pepper, red fruits and stone aromas. The wine is round, sweet, bright and fresh with tannic, sweet cherries and spice on the finish.

Smoke and dark fruit, a powerful palate with tannins that still need time to integrate, the finish lifts toward licorice.

Lavishly floral compared to Colombo's meatier, more earthen bottlings, La Louvée focuses on intensely ripe blackberry and blueberry flavors dusted with a shower of basalt and struck granite. Satiny on the palate and held upright by piercing black-currant acidity, this sleek, supple Syrah is ready now but should improve through 2035 and hold longer still.