Vintus

Stephen Tanzer’s Winophilia posted an article entitled “Saint-Joseph: the Insider’s Old World Syrah” by Josh Raynolds. Raynolds writes on how Saint-Joseph has until recently been the northern Rhône Valley’s insider secret. “The expression of syrah in the northern Rhône is considered by most cosmopolitan wine lovers to be the benchmark for the variety. The wines display vivid black and blue fruit, floral and spice character and a bright minerally quality that’s rarely produced by syrah elsewhere.”

Needing no introduction to Rhône whine lovers, as Raynolds says, E. Guigal’s 2009 Saint-Jospeh shows the opulence and extroverted dark berry quality of the vintage, and Philippe Guigal himself has made it a personal mission to increase the profile of Saint-Joseph. To read more about Saint-Joseph on Winophilia click here.

The New York Times recently dedicated an article to the Saint-Joseph region of the Rhône Valley. Eric Pfanner gives detail on Saint-Joseph’s 40 miles of vineyard area along the western bank of the Rhône. “Though long, Saint-Joseph is extremely narrow, never extending far into the hinterlands to the west of the river; rather than a single, contiguous vineyard, it is a collection of parcels, mostly within view of the Rhône but also detached from it and from each other.”

He gives credit to several important producers as good sources of Saint-Joseph, one of them Guigal. He then points to the location for most of the top wines from the appellation, locating them around Tournon and Mauves (where Guigal’s vineyards are located), and includes Guigal’s Saint-Joseph Vignes de l’Hospice in his shortlist of top wines. To read the full article click here.

Guigal's Vinges de l'Hospice

The New York Times featured an article on Condrieu, France entitled “An Elegant, New Balance for Condrieu”. The article explains all the factors that makes Condrieu frustrating and yet very elegant at the same time. Below is an excerpt  where even Philippe Guigal comments.

“Among the thousands of New World viogniers, as well as the Condrieu imitations from elsewhere in the Rhône Valley and other French areas like Languedoc, there are surely some good wines. But viognier is a tricky grape to get right. It needs to be harvested very ripe, otherwise it tastes vegetal and diluted. But ripeness often comes with high amounts of alcohol, and in many viogniers the hot, bitter burn of ethanol is the dominant sensation.

Condrieu is not immune from this problem. Especially in recent, warm vintages, alcohol levels of more than 14 percent — high for any wine, but especially for whites — have become common. Because Condrieu competes with powerful New World viogniers in export markets, producers have been tempted to push things even further.

“Some people have been making huge wines,” said Philippe Guigal, oenologist of the prominent Rhône Valley production and merchant house that carries his family name. “The challenge today is to make a Condrieu this is digestible, with a certain balance.”

For all of these reasons, Condrieu is a wine that I have often left on the shelf. And when I traveled to the tasting where I met Mr. Terrisson — in the town of Ampuis — it was with the intention of deepening my knowledge of the reds of the Northern Rhône, including appellations like Côte-Rôtie, Saint-Joseph, Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage.

Instead, I was won over by the 2011 Condrieus. This is a vintage that clearly favors the balance that Mr. Guigal cited; many of the wines combine the signature golden richness of viognier with the freshness and elegance that mark the best of French winemaking. While viognier can by fruity and flamboyant, almost exotic, these wines are structured and restrained, with a bit of the noble salinity of another Northern Rhône white variety, marsanne.”

To read the full article click here.

E. Guigal, Condrieu, France

In a recent Wine & Spirits article that appeared in the February 2013 issue, writer Tara Q. Thomas explains that kimchi, cabbage fermented with spicy red pepper, is more commonly accompanied with white wine or beer. However, she came to find that there are many great red wines that pair very nicely with the fire hot vegetable. Among the highlights of wines tasted with kimchi was E. Guigal’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape! You’ll find her comments below. Click on the image to read the full article!

“Spice: E. Guigal 2010 Chateaneuf du Pape - We included this wine based on Eater by Yoo Ha, the wine director of Benu in San Francisco, who said he finds that Châteauneuf-du-Pape has a particular affinity for chef Corey Lee’s Asian-accented cuisine. In the case of the Guigal, it’s as if the spice of the wine makes room for the spice of the kimchi, the two blending into a complex tapestry of flavor. “There’s real interaction between the kimchi and the wine.” said Josh Greene, “a lot of interplay of flavors.” While some found the combination a little hot, Kim reminded us that you’d rarely eat kimchi without a side of rice. He often opts for Rhône wines, in fact, with Jungsik’s kimchi-sauced Waygu steak. “I used to go with Cornas,” he said, ” but now I’ve changed to St-Joseph: all that black pepper and spice [flavor] translates well with the kimchi spice.”

Jancis Robinson writes a total overview of the 2011 vintage in the Northern Rhône and elaborates on Guigal’s Condrieu. Click here to read the full article, below is an excerpt.

“According to Marcel’s son Philippe Guigal, father of twin baby boys (thereby ensuring succession?), the market can’t get enough Condrieu, the northern Rhône’s prototype Viognier and so much more savoury and interesting than most varietal Viogniers now made around the world. It is extraordinary to think that the world’s total plantings of Viognier had shrunk to just 14 hectares in Condrieu and its neighbour Château-Grillet by the 1960s, but that now there are more than 11,000 hectares planted around the world.) Apparently the generic organisation Inter Rhône, one of the many who set up a tasting for me, did an audit of each appellation’s stocks and found that Condrieu had the least when compared with sales: just 11 months’ worth.

Philippe Guigal has somehow to find enough wine to fill 90,000 bottles of their basic Condrieu nowadays – quite a challenge. Their superior Doriane bottling, which, unusually for a Condrieu, seems to last as well as Georges Vernay’s top bottlings, is supplied by their own top holdings in the appellation, which grew to 4.5 hectares last year thanks to a new half hectare. The talented Condrieu vigneron Yves Gangloff has also been expanding his holdings. You need deep pockets to buy prized land in the northern Rhône’s Viognier country; which is perhaps why it was François Pinault (owner, inter alia, of Château Latour in Bordeaux) who acquired the famous Château-Grillet recently.”

Wine & Spirits Magazine’s panel tasted blind 447 new-release Rhône Valley wines over the past year. In the February 2013 issue they released their top scoring wines. Among the favorites were a total of five Guigal wines, Condrieu La Doriane 2010, Condrieu 2010, Crozes-Hermitage 2009, Crozes-Hermitage 2007, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2006! You can see the scores and reviews below.

Condrieu La Doriane 2010- “This is an exceptional vintage of this cuvée, a wine pulled from three sites in Condrieu and aged in 100 percent new oak. The oak is evident but matched equally by the substantial peach, almond and citrus flavors the wine holds, a weight it manages effortlessly. It’s opulent and showy and as firm as stone, a Conrieu for the cellar.”  95 Points

Condrieu 2010- “Textbook Condrieu, this hits all the touchstones – peaches, honeysuckle, stones – with grace. While the wine feels almost unctuous in texture, the flavors remain light and clean, buoyed by a fine, firm acidity. For monkfish in brown butter.”  90 Points

Crozes-Hermitage (Best Buy) 2009 “This is entirely savory, all toasted almond, mineral and salt, an austere Crozes that stands out for its steadfast flavor and firmness. Decant it for veal stew with mushrooms.”  90 Points

Crozes-Hermitage (Best Buy) 2007- “This starts out lush and black, a seductive syrah with floral notes on its plummy fruit. Then with ferrous tannins creep up, reddening the fruit and imbuing it with a steadfast firmness. It finishes rich and earthy, approachable now with time in a decanter and a leg of lamb if you don’t shoose to cellar it for another five or ten years.”  93 Points

Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2006- “Though already six years old, this Châteauneuf gives the impression of only beginning to come into its own. It starts off smelling like a peat fire, deeply smoky and earthy, and takes hours for the smoke to clear. Only then does the fruit come up, firm and red, held tight with a cool, hard acidity. It’s austere, stand-offish, a Châteauneuf to leave alone for another six years, or pair with boeuf bourguignon.”  92 Points

E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane 2010 was one of 76 wines nominated for the “2012 Sommelier’s Choice” award in Sommelier Journal. The wines were nominated by top wine professionals across the country, who were asked to select their most memorable bottlings of the preceding 12 months. The nominees were then ranked in a blind tasting by the magazine’s editorial board. The results are revealed in the current issue. Here are some comments from the editorial board on the 2010 La Doriane:

E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane,
Rhône Valley, France 2010 $95
Caporoso recognized this bottling as “Viognier from start to finish: pepper, fennel, violets,
peach juice, mangos.” In Meehan’s words, it had “so much mineral it’s like licking a rock.”

On the Wine Advocate site, today’s Wine of the Day is Guigal’s 2011 Côtes do Rhône Blanc. Posted is the 89 point score and Robert Parker’s review which can be viewed below.

“Bursting with honeysuckle and tropical fruit characteristics, the 2011 Cotes du Rhone Blanc offers terrific value. It is meant to be consumed during its first several years of life. The Guigal family may be the modern world’s greatest testament to a family-run winery with impeccably high standards, integrity and an uncompromising vision of the future. They continue to push the envelope of quality to greater and greater heights. Marcel Guigal learned it all from his father, Etienne, a legend in the Northern Rhone. Over my three decade plus career, it has been a noteworthy story to watch Marcel’s son, Philippe, take full responsibility for the future direction of this incredible enterprise, if not empire. I have almost unlimited admiration for the Guigals and their ability to produce millions of bottles of inexpensive Cotes du Rhones that are among the finest of the entire Rhone Valley, as well as their portfolio of exquisite whites, reds and roses from the most prestigious appellations in the Rhone. After more than three decades of tasting here, I never cease to be amazed by what they accomplish.” 89 Points Robert Parker

The Toronto Life published an article by David Lawrason with his weekly wine pick, E. Guigal’s 2009 Crozes-Hermitage. Lawranson describes the wine as ”a fine red from France’s killer 2009 vintage,” awarding it a score of 92 points. Lawrason writes: “One of the big wine stories of the year has been the flood of excellent 2009 reds from around France’s Rhône Valley. Again and again, wines that cost $20 to $30 have performed like superstars, and this is a great example.”

In his tasting note on the wine, he writes “this 100 percent syrah from the northern Rhône pours deep black ruby. The nose is classic, with very ripe, plummy fruit and classic syrah smoke, brine, some meatiness and black pepper. It’s quite full bodied, beefy and well structured, dripping with licorice, wood smoke and dark chocolate. The length is excellent, too.”

To see the full article, click here.