1993 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde

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. I tasted three separate bottlings of the 1993 Cote Rotie Blonde et Brune (there are six bottlings of this cuvee), and found the wine to be herbaceous and severe, with dry, hard tannin, and atypical austerity and toughness for a Guigal wine. My highest rating for this wine has been 80, and my lowest, 75, but most are in the 78-79 point range. It gets my nod as the most disappointing regular Cote Rotie Guigal has produced since 1984. 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