E. Guigal Tasting held at Wildwood Restaurant NW Portland April 01, 2009

First, two Champagnes from Philipponnat, their Brut Royal Réserve and the 1999 Brut Clos des Goisses. The Clos des Goisses is 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay and 30% of the wine was fermented in oak. This bottle was disgorged in March 2007. A remarkably muscular wine with ripe pear, smoke, white peaches and minerals. Both were delicious and went very well with the crab cakes and the roasted fennel wrapped in prosciutto and topped with an olive tapenade.

We then tasted the Guigal 2007 Côtes du Rhône Blanc. Most producers use Grenache Blanc and/or Clairette as the main backbone for their blanc, but since 1991 Marcel Guigal has included significant proportions of Viognier (50% in this vintage), Marsanne and Roussanne in the blend. This clean white displays amazing aromatics of fresh citrus, honeysuckle, kiwi and pear while the palate adds a mineral dimension along with white peach and tangerine. Think grilled fish, spicy Thai, appetizers or sitting on the porch on a warm summer evening.

Condrieu is a tiny appellation in the Northern Rhône just south of Côte Rôtie and is the original home of Viognier. While I have had some domestic Viogniers that have real character, most are sappy and remind me of fruit cocktail or canned peaches with their cloying sweetness. The 2007 Guigal Condrieu, 2/3 of which was fermented in stainless steel and the remainder in new barriques, exhibited an exotic perfume of white peach, orange blossom, honeysuckle and acacia flowers. On the palate the wine delivers rich layers of fruit along with racy minerality and a very long finish. Guigal’s 2007 Condrieu La Doriane is fermented and aged in 100% new oak barriques. This wine came across rather clumsy to me when I first tasted it but as it warmed a bit and I had some of my puree of toasted semolina and chickpea soup it evolved into a very complex, sexy white with tangerine, floral and citrus notes along with a real mineral bite. Very long finish. I think this will reward patience to allow the wood to integrate more completely but offers compelling reasons to drink now.

The 2007 Guigal Côtes du Rhône Rosé is a bright, pale ruby color and offers scents of fresh crushed strawberry and watermelon aromas backed by spicy berry and dried flower notes. I think that if tasted in a dark glass most people would characterize this as a red wine with plenty of framboise, cherry, pepper, and spice box notes. Great value too.

On to the 2005 Côtes du Rhône Rouge. Guigal uses more Syrah than Grenache and chooses to hold this wine for a minimum of two years in large foudres to allow the wine to harmonize and soften before release. This vintage shows fleshy berry aromas along with smoked meat, dark plum and licorice notes framed by fine tannins. Tremendous value.

The 2004 Châteauneuf-du-Pape was perhaps the least impressive wine of the tasting but by all means still a good wine among some great wines. Showing a dense ruby/purple-tinged edge it offers black cherry, hoisin sauce and cedar notes. The bright acidity on the finish makes you want to go back for another sip.

2005 Guigal St.-Joseph Vignes de L’Hospice. 100% Syrah from two steeply terraced vineyards perched above the town of Tournon. Aged for 30 months in new barriques and bottled unfiltered this is a massive wine with a deep purple hue, huge tannins  accompanied by massive concentration and intensity. On the nose you get hoisin sauce, smoke, crème de cassis and violets along with fig and cocoa on the palate. A very complex wine that will live for decades.

2005 Guigal Côte Rôtie Brune et Blonde. Ok, if you didn’t know, this is where the idea of co-fermenting Viognier with Syrah originated, probably to add a little more fermentable sugar to the notoriously late-ripening Syrah. If your primary experience with the Syrah grape is eastern Washington, California or other relatively warm growing regions, you need to try something from the northern Rhône. The aromatic profile of these wines is incredible and you will find yourself not wanting to drink them but rather wanting to put a log on the fire and sniffing your glass for several hours as the wine reveals itself to you. Guigal used 4% Viognier for this vintage and produced a massive wine that will show best in another 5-7 years. Right now it exhibits raspberry, blackberry and black cherries wrapped up in fairly dense but ripe tannins and offers a mouth-filling finish.

The 2005 Côte Rôtie Château D’Ampuis is the tenth vintage of this blend from seven hillside vineyards that average 45 years old and contains 7% Viognier. The wine is aged for 3 years in new barriques and offers a somewhat more round and harmonious wine than the single-vineyard bottlings. Dense ruby/purple all the way to the rim, this offers dark plum, raspberry, black cherry and cassis. Dense, did I already say dense? Very concentrated but with impeccable balance and verve. This will age for a long time while still offering immediate gratification.

2004 E. Guigal La Turque. One of the La La wines (La Mouline, La Landonne and La Turque). Spectacular. I have had the occasion to taste some rare and expensive wines that did not compel me extol their virtue, but damn, this is incredible stuff. Also contains 7% Viognier and aged for 42 months in new barriques. Asian spices, licorice, grilled meats and espresso give way to violets and minerals. This can only be northern Rhône Syrah. The texture is silky smooth and the finish lasts for more than a minute. I wish I had had more time to allow this to really open up. Needless to say I didn’t spit!