Winemaker Notes
To the eye, the wine is red black with deep dark tints. The nose is presented with powerful and intense aromas of small black fruits, liquorice and roasted notes and oriental spices. The palate immediately begins with a powerful attack of important tannic structure. Rich and concentrated, the wine is fully expressive of the terroir. Overall, there is great ageing potential, structured and concentrated with a rare intensity of flavor and color.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
As always, the 2019 Côte Rôtie La Landonne is all Syrah that was not destemmed and will spend four years in new French oak. A wine with perfection written all over it, it's one of the most impressive barrel samples to ever pass this critic's lips. Deep purple/black-hued with a massive, full-bodied, brooding style, it has classic smoky, meaty black fruits, a touch of iron, graphite, tobacco, and pepper, building tannins, and a huge finish. This is pure brilliance in Syrah, yet as with just about every vintage here, it will require a solid decade of bottle age.
Barrel Sample: 98-100 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Due to its vinification with 100% whole clusters, the 2019 Côte-Rôtie La Landonne exudes a firm, gently stem-inflected bouquet of green bell pepper, dark berries, spices, pepper, licorice and gentian. Full-bodied, dense and structured, it’s concentrated and layered, with a multidimensional core of fruit and an ample, fleshy mid-palate framed by a robust chassis of tannins, concluding with a long, mordant and faintly saline finish. Rating: 98+
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James Suckling
Still very youthful, this has a deep nose of smoke, bitter chocolate and herbal liqueur. The gigantic tannin structure on the palate will need many years of further aging to completely resolve, but the tannins are fine which gives the super-long finish an extraordinary texture, like old-fashioned velvet. So much smoke and crushed rock character! A pure syrah which is then fermented with 100% whole bunches. Matured in 100% new oak for 42 months.
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Wine Spectator
Firing on all cylinders, this simmers with massive power and range. Boasts a dark, brooding core of black plum, fig paste, strappy black licorice and fruitcake flavors supported by a formidable iron spine. Chewy in feel, with grilled aniseed and warm mesquite smoke adding salty sweetness. Though its tannins are mellowing, this still has a lifetime ahead in the cellar. A showstopper.
The Guigal domain was founded in 1946 by Etienne Guigal in the ancient village of Ampuis, home of the wines of the Côte-Rôtie. In these vineyards that are over 2400 years old, you can still see the small terraced walls characteristic of the Roman period. Etienne Guigal arrived in this region in 1923 at the age of 14. He made wine for over 67 vintages and, at the beginning of his career, participated in the development of the Vidal-Fleury establishment.
Despite his young age, Marcel Guigal took over from his father in 1961 when the latter was victim to a brutal illness rendering him blind. Marcel's hard work and perseverance enabled the Guigals to buy out Vidal-Fleury in 1984, although the establishment retains its own identity and commercial autonomy. In 2000, the Guigals purchased the Jean-Louis Grippat estate in Saint-Joseph and Hermitage, as well as the Domaine de Vallouit in Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage, Saint-Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage.
In the cellars of the Guigal estate in Ampuis, the northern appellations of the Rhône Valley are produced and aged. These are the appellations of Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Hermitage, Saint-Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage. The great appellations of the Southern Rhône, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, Tavel and Côtes-du-Rhône, are also aged in the Ampuis cellars.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
The cultivation of vines here began with Greek settlers who arrived in 600 BC. Its proximity to Vienne was important then and also when that city became a Roman settlement but its situation, far from the negociants of Tain, led to its decline in more modern history. However the 1990s brought with it a revival fueled by one producer, Marcel Guigal, who believed in the zone’s potential. He, along with the critic, Robert Parker, are said to be responsible for the zone’s later 20th century renaissance.
Where the Rhone River turns, there is a build up of schist rock and a remarkable angle that produces slopes to maximize the rays of the sun. Cote Rotie remains one of the steepest in viticultural France. Its varied slopes have two designations. Some are dedicated as Côte Blonde and others as Côte Brune. Syrahs coming from Côte Blonde are lighter, more floral, and ready for earlier consumption—they can also include up to 20% of the highly scented Viognier. Those from Côte Brune are more sturdy, age-worthy and are typically nearly 100% Syrah. Either way, a Cote Rotie is going to have a particularly haunting and savory perfume, expressing a more feminine side of the northern Rhone.