Winemaker Notes
The eye is greeted by a wine full of red hues with dark tints. The nose opens with intensely aromatic, powerful and elegant small red fruit, blackberry and morello cherry aromas. The palate begins with a supple attack of a balanced supple structure, concentration and elegant tannins. This wine is fully expressive of the terroir: with all the virility of the Côte Brune, La Turque also has all the subtlety and femininity of the Côte Blonde.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
I was blown away by the 2019 Côte Rôtie La Turque, which comes from a tiny parcel in the Côte Brune and is fermented with a touch of Viognier as well as a small amount of stems. It too has a smoky, meaty, gamey profile as well as full-bodied richness and tons of mid-palate depth and concentration. It's another serious 2019 with structure to spare, remarkable purity, flawless balance, and a great finish. As usual, it's not for the instant gratification crowd and is going to demand 10-15 years of bottle age.
Barrel Sample: 98-100 -
James Suckling
From the haunting nose through to the end of the extremely long finish this wine embodies the rocky personality of Cote-Rotie, along with the special ripeness that the syrah achieves here. As floral as it is stony, as structured as it is concentrated, yet all of this builds an imposing and enchanting whole. A cuvee of 93% syrah and 7% viognier. Matured in 100% new oak for 42 months. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Austere and somewhat somber—no doubt influenced by the high proportion of iron oxide in the soils—the 2019 Côte-Rôtie La Turque is nonetheless elegant and remarkably delicate. It unfurls from the glass with aromas of spices, gentian, dark berries, bell pepper and baked mulberries, mingled with subtle hints of oak. Full-bodied, structured and robust, it delivers a multidimensional core of fruit and firm, finely extracted tannins that channel its controlled power, concluding with an endless, delicately spicy finish.
-
Wine Spectator
Powerful and broad, with a velvety robe of charred apple wood and savory spices surrounding a core of winey red currant and cherry preserves, flecked with olive tapenade. Texturally stunning, with polished, softened tannins keeping this poised. Showing impressive freshness and tension, this is a compelling, well-meshed wine that stretches way out.
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.