100 WA

Notes:

Similar to the powerful 1988, the inky/purple-colored, dense 2005 Cote Rotie La Mouline offers a stunning perfume of espresso roast, licorice, pepper, blackberries, and black cherries intermixed with hints of chocolate and spring flowers. Powerful, super-concentrated, and ruggedly-constructed with a boatload of tannin, this is a wine to forget for 4-5 years, and drink over the following 25-30. It is the densest, most tannic vintage of La Mouline since 1988. Parker 100

While the entire world of wine knows how profound Guigals red winesare, they may not know that he continues to demonstrate a completemastery of white wine varietals, from his lowly Cotes du Rhone blend ofRoussanne, Marsanne, Viognier, Clairette, and Bourboulenc, to hisseriously-endowed dry whites from the northern Rhone. Over recentyears, Guigal has been attempting to produce an interesting,fairly-priced, delicious Crozes-Hermitage. (The overall level ofquality from this complex appellation is less than exciting.) Guigal isbecoming one of the most important producers of high qualitySt.-Joseph. He fashions three cuvees, a general appellation offering,his St.-Joseph Lieu-Dit St.-Joseph, and the limited production Vignesde lHospice, which comes from high elevation, steeply terraced vinesplanted at the top of the small mountain that dominates the town ofTournon. Along with Chapoutiers St.-Joseph Les Granits, GuigalsVignes de lHospice is one of the most profound wines of theappellation. It comes from a 5.5 acre parcel at the top of the smallmountain that dominates the town of Tournon. The soils are decomposedgranite with essentially the same soil base as the great vineyard ofHermitage across the river known as Les Bessards. One can argue that byproducing the Cote Rotie Chateau dAmpuis, Guigal is pulling some highquality material away from his Brune et Blonde, and it seems to me thatonly in the greatest vintages is the Brune et Blonde as consistent asit was in the past. That said, the Chateau dAmpuis is superb. Thiscuvee comes from some of the top vineyards planted on the steephillsides of Cote Rotie, such as Le Clos, La Grande Plantee, LaPommiere, Pavillon Rouge, Le Moulin, and Guigals most recent purchase,La Viria, which I suspect will become another single vineyard CoteRotie in a few years. There are around 2,000 cases of this cuvee, andit is aged 30 or more months in 100% new oak. Guigals single vineyardCote Roties are other-worldly in nearly every vintage. I have giventhese offerings more perfect scores than any other wines in the world.They represent three completely different expressions of Cote Rotie,and are made in limited quantities. There are about 1,000 cases of LaLandonne, and 500-600 cases each of La Mouline and La Turque. LaMouline, which includes the highest percentage of co-fermented Viognier(11%), is always the more delicate, voluptuous wine with the mostcomplex aromatics. La Turque is a denser, more gamy, meaty effort withapproximately 7% Viognier co-fermented. It comes across as a completelydifferent style of wine. La Landonne, which is grown in pure schist onthe steep hillsides of the northern-most sector of the appellation, is100% Syrah. It is the densest, most concentrated, masculine, and tannicof these three cuvees. Regardless of the vintages style andpersonality, La Mouline will always be the most flattering to drinkyoung, followed by La Turque, and lastly by La Landonne. All three ofthese offerings are aged for a remarkably long, 42 month period in 100%new oak barrels (but they are never oaky), and are bottled unfined andunfiltered. They typically have 30+ years of longevity in top vintages.In short, they are singular expressions of greatness from spectacularvineyards that are brought to fruition with non-interventionalistic,creative yet distinctive winemaking. A re-visit to the 2004s has proventhat Guigals long barrel aging can produce wines that are often betterout of bottle than they were early in cask, a common occurrence atGuigal.

Vins Rare