in wine today

Worth jotting down
By Georges Meekers

Had you started importing fine wines and wanted a little more attention from sommeliers and the press, what would you do?

You might want to set up a flight of wines for tasting, of course. And, if it was a (vertical) sampling of Guigal Côte-Rôties, ideally but not necessarily from the three single vineyards, La Mouline, La Turque and La Landonne, then you could reasonably expect a pretty good turn-out.

Afterall, producer E. Guigal is considered to be the yardstick for Rhône reds, despite increased competition from Chapoutier.

Not only these extraordinarily pricy single-vineyard wines under the recently purchased Château d’Ampuis are ahead of the young turks. But so is Guigal's ‘Brune et Blonde’ blend of grapes from two hillsides, together with his generic Côte-Rôtie.

Other red wines sold under the Guigal label are Hermitage and the much cheaper Côtes du Rhône, outperforming its humble AC with ease. Guigal’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas are good too.

But it’s the red Chateau d’Ampuis threesome that gets the juices flowing. I would certainly say yes if an invitation for such a tasting would plop on my doormat.

La Mouline, with no less than 10 % Viognier blended to almost 90 % Syrah, would be the most fragrant and velvety textured of the three. It would be easy to recognise because of its delicate, somehow malty perfume as opposed to the richer, more structured wines from the other two vineyards.

Straight Syrah blockbuster La Landonne would be absolutely different in style to the Mouline, backward and massively concentrated, big, tannic and intense with dark brooding fruit, also very farmyardy, as it’s meant to be.

Finally, La Turque, with just a little of Viognier, would nestle somewhere in the middle. In comparison with the other two wines, it could very well seem raw and unsubtle with a woodier flavour.

Afterall, these wines spend 42 months in new oak barrels, much longer than wines of comparable quality from most other great wine regions and producers anywhere in the world.

I haven’t got a clue if anyone brings these wines in. Tasting these wines might not be enough to make me mention the importers as ‘the only fine wine traders worth ringing’, but I would certainly, and happily, add their number to my telephone book.