2013 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne

The gem of the lineup (and my money is on the wine of the vintage), the 2013 Côte Rôtie La Landonne sports a deep purple color and killer notes of blackcurrants, black olives, game, and spice. It picks up more minerality with time in the glass and offers a full-bodied, powerful, concentrated style on the palate. With awesome tannin quality (but lots of them) and integrated, yet high acidity, forget bottles for 7-8 years. It should keep for 2-3 decades. Due to the timing of my visit (which was earlier than normal), I wasn’t able to taste a full lineup from Guigal. Nevertheless, even an abbreviated lineup from Guigal consists of more wines than just about every other producer I taste with. Looking at the 2016s, the white wines, especially from Condrieu, are brilliant and show the more fresh, vibrant style of this cooler, late vintage. The reds are very classic in style across the board. I’ll taste these again, mostly from barrel, next year as well, but this is certainly an excellent vintage. The 2015s, as I’ve written more than once now, are truly spectacular, and after tasting these wines multiple times from barrel now, I completely understand why Marcel Guigal would declare this the greatest vintage of his lifetime. These are rich, voluptuous, massive wines I think will represent a modern-day version of 1978. The 2014s continue to improve every time I taste them, which is common for this estate. Similar, perhaps, to a toned down 2012, these are charming, supple, elegant wines that are vastly more approachable than the 2013s. Lastly, the 2013s from bottle showed the backward, dark, mineral-laced profile of the vintage. They’re beautifully concentrated and terrific wines, yet the cellar is going to be your friend.

La Landonne is never destemmed and is always the last of the single-vineyard wines to be picked. Philippe Guigal calls it “the most Pauillac of the Cote Roties,” and the 2013 Cote Rotie La Landonne bears that out. It’s slightly austere and firmly tannic, with attractive floral aromas and layers of dark fruit that will require time to fully emerge.

100% Syrah. Quite different to its brethren (perhaps due to the lack of Viognier?) with a stemmy, herbal note adding a welcome extra dimension to the palate. Sleek black fruit, lovely fine but bold tannin which gives a long, chewy finish. There’s a lot of complexity and breadth on display here, and if you like that stemmy element, it is very appealing indeed. (RH)