Guigal Cote Rotie La Landonne 2016
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Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wine
Spectator - Decanter
Product Details
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Somm Note
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, licorice 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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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The darkest, most concentrated and tannic of the 2016 La Las, the 2016 Cote Rotie La Landonne boasts hints of smoked meat and scorched coffee on the nose, waves of cassis fruit and hints of olives and herbs. Medium to full-bodied, this is packed with tannin, ripe fruit and intricate nuances of savory complexity. Rich and velvety, with terrific texture and impressive length, it's a sure bet to evolve gracefully for the next 20-25 years.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Côte Rôtie La Landonne showed brilliantly, with the more fresh, classic, and elegant style of the vintage front and center. All Syrah aged four years in new French oak, it has a magical bouquet of blackcurrants, blackberries, smoked meat, roasted coffee, bacon fat, and graphite that's to die for. This carries over to the palate, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a flawlessly balanced texture, ripe yet silky tannins, and the hallmark purity and freshness of the vintage.
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Wine Spectator
This sports some ripe black cherry, bitter plum and black currant fruit flavors allied to a bolt of cast iron through the middle, while mesquite, bay leaf and savory notes scurry about. Shows lots of energy and detail on the finish, with the cast iron edge extending lengthily. Should cruise in the cellar.
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Decanter
Always the deepest and most austere of the single vineyard 'La La' wines, the 2016 La Landonne exhibits some classic peppery spice and smoky bacon aromatics alongside dark plum and roast espresso - intense, vivid and expressive in aroma. It's full-bodied, concentrated and dense in style, and at this stage the oak is just about in balance. Lush, concentrated fruit is allied to a sinewy texture coming from the stems. It's quite grainy, in fact, but the tannins are sure to resolve during their extended oak ageing - the wine is only at the start of its long elevage, and will spend a total of 42 months in new oak barriques, reaching the market in early 2020.
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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.