1993 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque

The great glories of this house are its Cote Roties, of which there are now five separate offerings. The 1993s, which have just come on the marketplace, are from a troublesome vintage for everyone in Cote Rotie, rivaling 1984 in difficulty. Nevertheless, the single-vineyard wines have turned out well. As for the single vineyard wines, they are all excellent in 1993, but more herbaceous and clearly marked by the green pepper smells of slightly underripe Syrah. I thought the 1993 Cote Rotie La Turque to be good, with a deep ruby color, and an intense olive, vanillin, sweet black fruit character. Dry tannin, green pepper aromas, and some toughness in the finish (which should dissipate with another year or two of bottle age) are obvious. The wine displays a healthy dark ruby/purple color, good sweetness on the attack, and a compressed finish because of the astringent level of tannin. This wine should round out with another 1-2 years of bottle age, and last for a decade. Guigal is one of the cellars where the wines always taste better after they are bottled than they do from cask, although as the scores in this segment indicate, some profound wines can be found in the 1994, 1995, and 1996 vintages Chez Guigal. Importer: Classic Wines, Boston, MA; tel. (617) 731-6644 Wine Advocate.October, 1997