Winemaker Notes
With intense aromas of red and black berries and morello cherry, the supple attack leads into a wine fully expressive of its terroir, showing both the power of the Côte Brune marked by the delicacy of the Côte Blonde.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from a tiny parcel on the Côte Brune and based on 93% Syrah and 7% Viognier that was aged 42 months in new French oak, the 2021 Côte Rôtie La Turque sports a deeper ruby hue as well as beautiful aromatics of cassis, smoked game, liquid violets, graphite, and charcoal. It's medium to full-bodied, nicely concentrated, and balanced on the palate. It doesn't have the exotic, complex character of the La Mouline yet is slightly more concentrated, has beautiful texture, fabulous balance, and a great finish. I love it today, and it has another two decades of prime drinking ahead of it.
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James Suckling
In spite of the cool 2021 vintage, this complex Cote Rotie has excellent smoke, tar and pepper aromas plus some gingerbread and candied oranges. A very elegant expression of this site that has the concentration we expect, but more restrained power than in hot and dry vintages. Great length, the oak beautifully integrated in the very long, sophisticated finish. From the Cote Brune section of this appellation. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Côte-Rôtie La Turque is highly representative of its terroir despite the challenges of the vintage. Unfurling with aromas of dark fruits, spices, cinnamon, iris and blackberries, it is full-bodied, concentrated and firmly structured, with a deep core of fruit framed by powdery tannins, concluding with a mocha-inflected finish. While it may lack the sheer opulence of sunnier years, it retains impressive depth and authority, and its terroir expression should become even more articulate with time in the cellar.
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Wine Spectator
Creamy, rich, salty and expansive, with waves of warm mocha, winey steeped currant, sweet tapenade and zesty spices. Loamy earth tones, [i]garrigue[n] and toasted brown bread chime in, offering a robe of campfire ash and mesquite throughout. Texturally compelling, with all of its elements integrated, though this will benefit from more time in bottle. Shows freshness on the long, winding finish. Syrah and Viognier.
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Decanter
This is very much on the perfumed, rose-like side of La Turque, along with characteristic star anise, nutmeg, and cinnamon spice, partly from the oak. It’s relatively light in body and concentration this year, but does have a good sense of freshness. More char and spice on the finish, along with vanilla pod. This year it’s actually quite light in tannins, and they are very fine. No hints of greenness, it’s fine and neat. It will be ready relatively early, and is not a vintage for long ageing. Low alcohol. At the beginning of its long maturation in 100% new oak barriques.
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.