Asimov said the exact same thing in 2010. Both years produced wines with higher acidity and better structure than usual. Neither marked a change in winemaking, just a difference in years. They were also both decently sunny and warm years and I doubt the wines will bring back anybody who gave up CdP after the 90s. I like to read Asimov, and his heart is in the right place, but I don’t find his palate and his knowledge always are.
K&L has plenty of reach even with shipping restrictions (and there are certainly ways around that if one is motivated). So I would guess the impact from shipping restrictions is limited…it’s (or was)a function of soft market demand.
Jeb Dunnuck declared at a wine tasting in 2012 that the greatest wine he ever had was a recent vintage of Guigal LaLa. I was intrigued and secured a few. Silly me, I should have known better. And as noted, these haven’t appreciated in price at all, so unloading them is a challenge without a big haircut.
As noted, not a proper analogy.
I had a few in the past which didn’t impress me but I admit to loving a recent 1986 La Turque.
anyone know if the style changed since then?
I put in a lowball bid on a mixed case of ‘98 La La’s several months ago, and was shocked that I won. That was our wedding year, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the ‘98 La Landonne and ‘98 La Mouline on prior occasions, so I’m pretty stoked. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Jesus, Pat… yes, silly you. We’ve tasted together and you know we disagree on just about everything. The idea you’d find pleasure in a young la Mouline is laughable, so please, don’t blame me. And if you want to offload those lala, let me know 
A mature vintage of Guigal’s La Mouline is unquestionably on my desert island list.
IMO the 3 98 LaLas are better than the 99
Så congratulations
Confession: the LaLa wines are among my guilty pleasures.
I will now burn my AFWE card.
For what it’s worth, if their high-to-highest-end wines wind down due to lack of interest, it will appear that their Cotes du Rhone should be able to carry them through, given that these are available and are being pushed at every supermarket, corner and mom-n-pop wine/liquor stores that I come upon here in the northeast, especially here in NYC.
I think Guigal is a casualty of Guigal. Ray and Brad a few years back very generously shared a handful of LaLa bottles from the glory era which were absolutely stunning.
More recent vintages, including a couple of 99 LaLas this past fall, are very big and pretty and polished- but show little inclination toward developing the breadth and subtlety of nuance from the early 70s examples I have tried.
The newer ones do grab your attention, but they are not truly interesting. Anna Nicole Smith was a strikingly and powerfully beautiful woman- but not someone to approach and ask about the latest news in the Wall Street Journal.
When there are things like Kiona Syrah Red Mountain for the same price as Guigal’s base bottling, I tempted to think anyone who finds any Guigal wine a good value, is just a Francophile and doesn’t actually have any taste. It’s not plonk but if it were a Bourgogne, would you buy the grand crus?
The 3 LaLa´s are usually among the very best Cote-Roties you can get … not in all vintages, but in most.
Sure, if you don´t like oak-influenced Rhones they might not be for you, but the quality of terroir and winemaking is no doubt there.
But there are some competitors, like Ogier, Rostaing, Jamet … and a few others, but hard to find such a consistency elsewhere.
(not talking about the crazy priced Gentaz-Dervieux).
Guigal´s negociant wines like the regular Cote-Rotie and the Cotes-du-Rhones are … well, negociant bottlings - depending on what grapes are available … and Chateau d´Ampuis is still an excellent CR … (but I´d rather take Rostaing´s Cote blonde or La Landonne instead for the price)
Sounds like someone needs to be invited to a blind tasting.
Josh,
I tempted to think anyone who denies that Guigal produced and produces outstanding wines doesn’t actually have any taste!
One may not like them - but to state it´s no good wine is … kind of childish.
I admit one has not to buy the regular CR-bottling or the general CdRhone … there are better values … but they are (usually) good wines nevertheless.
These two statements are contradictory. It’s hard to me to tell the quality of Guigal’s winemaking or even the terroir when it’s hidden by all that oak.
If you don’t like a wine, for you it’s not a wine of high quality. Wine isn’t cognitive but a matter of tasting, and thus a matter of taste, the actual kind and not the cultural metaphor.
This seems like a nice outcome for buyers. Yet a few still seem to complain. Most people (I include myself) who have had a decent slug of various La Las agree they can be and often are great. They may not be “typical” and certainly not cheap but really are IMHO great wines. Some of my favorite wines ever are some older La Moulines.
Asimov reviewed 2016 CdPs a couple months back and commented that a style correction was under way:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/dini > … -2016.html
That is just an Asimov trope. Every year or so he picks an area and notes that there is a “paradigm shift” or return to tradition or some such nonsense. He does it regarding CA Chardonnay every so often, like there was once a perfect type of Chardonnay made in CA and then it became big and oaky and now (whenever ‘now’ happens to be) it’s moving back. So of course he’d say that regarding the Rhone.
Two things to remember - 1. People will make what sells. 2. You can never go back in time.
Older vintages of La Mouline and Brune et Blonde didn’t see new oak. The earliest vintages, and in my opinion the greatest vintages of La Mouline were aged in foudres (assuming my memory is correct).