The producer
The Guigal name is synonymous with Cote Rotie, and Etienne Guigal’s arrival in the appellation in 1946, was one of the main drivers behind the whole of the Cote Rotie appellation’s subsequent success. Today Guigal produces nearly ten million bottles of wine a year along the length of the Rhone Valley. In Cote Rotie they own a stunning 40 hectares out of the appellation’s 323 hectares – more than 12% of the whole – and these holdings are in prime parts of the various vineyards that make Cote Rotie so complex.
Guigal originally brought themselves, and the appellation, to the world’s attention with three single vineyard wines known now as the “La-Las” – La Landonne, La Mouline and La Turque – wines aged for 42 months in new oak barriques. The wines took on statuesque personalities, with the ability to age for decades, and fame and fortune to match.
The wine
While Guigal’s so called “La-Las” (La Turque, La Landonne, La Mouline) are site specific to either Cote Brune or Cote Blonde, the fourth of their top wines – Chateau d’Ampuis – is blended from seven plots across the Cote Rotie vignoble. The wines they make throughout the Rhone Valley are examples of quality and consistency.
