Auguste Clape is located in Cornas, in the Rhone Valley. The estate owns ten acres and leases another four acres. It is run by the Clape family, with Pierre-Marie, son of the much admired Auguste, now in charge. The estate produces 24,000 bottles a year of Cornas and Cotes du Rhone. Clape wines are often difficult to acquire because so many French restaurants buy as much of Clape’s annual production as possible. Robert M. Parker Jr., an admirer of patriarch Auguste and his wines, has written that “Auguste Clape is…responsible for the renewed interest in the wines of Cornas. (His) wines combine the robust, aggressive tannin and enormous structure of a Cornas, with a tremendous extraction of peppery, jammy fruit.” Parker added that “No one disputes the fact that Clape’s Cornas is the reference point for the appellation.”