12 Guigal rouge [Cotes du Rhone] nothing fancy, just good solid reliable CdR that drinks well over a couple of nights. It seems like they have generally been successful in smoothing out vintage differentiation. Some tannin, medium bodied, fennel on the palate. Quite purplish hue. B+ Nowadays I find their blanc CdR to be better, but its a little harder to find.
If I remember correctly they chose not to produce a 2008 because none of their contracted grapes (they owned no southern Rhone vineyards at the time) were up to snuff, although they paid the growers as if they had picked.
Says a lot about their own perception of their quality and the respect they have for their customers.
This was a staple for me for a long, long time. It’s time I tried the '12.
I find them somewhat less appealing than I used to, and I think it’s because they’ve raised the percentage of syrah over time. It’s generally around 50% now (60% in 2011), and the mourvedre is running at 3%-5%, with grenache accounting for the rest (see Guigal website). Southern Rhone syrah, which is typically a different, less refined variant of the grape than the serine clone in the Northern Rhone, never seems to have much charm to me.
In the 1990s, the mix in the CdR was around 50% grenache, 25% syrah and 25% mourvedre, according to the 1997 edition of Parker’s Rhone book. And the proportion of grenache was higher still in the 1980s.
Still, the quality is pretty impressive for 2 million bottles a year.
I opened a 2001 recently that was very sound and pleasant, though it hadn’t developed as much complexity as some of Guigal’s CdRs from the 1980s. A 1983 I came on in a shop in London in 1999 was absolutely gorgeous!
I tried the 2013 last night and it was showing very nicely – softer tannins than I recall in the 2010, and some grenache in the flavor, I thought. It’s 50% syrah, 45% grenache and 5% mourvèdre. This was the most enjoyable Guigal CdR I recall in some years.
As John mentioned, I could have sworn that my tastes of Guigal Côtes did Rhône and CdP had a dominant proportion of Grenache in them (or at least tasted like it).
My first Condrieu was from them. The white CdR was a good value, too.
The Chateuneuf is 70%+ grenache (down from 80-85% in the mid-2000s). For more than a decade, the Cotes du Rhone has run 50%+ syrah and often has seemed to be too dominated by syrah for my tastes.
Was production of the 2013 rouge a lot smaller?
I don’t think I’ve seen it at retail in my area.
2015 Blanc is already at my local Costco.
We have gone through a couple of cases of the Réserve Prestige
and have liked it very much.
I’ve never seen the Reserve Prestige and it’s not listed on the Guigal website. I wonder if that’s a label for the German market or something.
Yep tons of the CdR blanc in Redwood City and Mtn View for $11.99
They make so much of the stuff that a lot of older vintages sit around. The 2010 seemed to be on most shelves in NYC for two years at least. Most places here still have the '12 out, but I grabbed a '13 when I saw it.
We buy a case of the Blanc and Rose every year, it is a bargain. We do not buy the rouge as often, but I should.