1998 Côte-Rôtie La Mouline

Guigal's La Mouline, arguably the single greatest example of Côte-Rôtie and unquestionably one of the three or four finest syrah-based wines in the world, is actually a marque, or a trademark. Technically, La Mouline is part of the Côte Blonde hillside, at the heart of the Côte-Rôtie appellation above the town of Ampuis. But La Mouline is also a specific site—a one-hectare vineyard, probably the oldest in Côte-Rôtie, with an average vine age of about 80 years.x000D The earliest vines in La Mouline date back to 1893, when planting in Côte-Rôtie started up again after phylloxera. The Guigals planted some additional vines, including a good bit of viognier, after they purchased the Mouline parcel from the Dervieux family in the early 1960s (Marcel had just joined his father Etienne in 1961 and was soon to become the locomotive of the Côte-Rôtie appellation). At that time, there were still some cherry trees in the vineyard.x000D x000D The syrah here is all petit sérine, the small-berried old syrah that produces extraordinary creaminess and flavor intensity while normally avoiding hard tannins. This is an important advantage, because so many of today's Côte-Rôties are from clonal selections that produce larger grapes, with less structure and concentration of fruit. The vineyard is co-planted with 11% viognier, a very high percentage for a modern-day Côte-Rôtie. When vines die, the Guigals replace them with the same variety to maintain a constant ratio of syrah to viognier. The soil of La Mouline is light, shallow, fast-draining limestone, mica and flint, plus a lot of calcareous silt and clay (essentially windblown dust), all underlaid by huge rocks. La Mouline is a very dry site: drought is more of a threat to the vines than excessive moisture.x000D La Mouline may be the most perfect amphitheater vineyard in the Côte-Rôtie appellation, with an exposition from full south to southeast. Wines have been made from this site for 2,400 years. It's a true heat trap: according to Philippe Guigal, Marcel's son, the sun heats the rocks, and the rocks radiate the heat toward the inside of the vineyard. So even at three o'clock in the morning in August, according to Philippe, the temperature amidst these vines can be 80 degrees. The vineyard is planted to a dense 10,000 vines per hectare. There are numerous very small terraces, some holding just a few vines, and some of the original walls still exist.x000D Once the Guigals decide the moment is right to pick, the grapes in La Mouline can be harvested in half a day. Prior to 1993, Guigal did not even own a destemmer. Since then, the Guigals may destem their fruit completely or not at all, depending on how ripe the stems are in a given year. Typically the fruit is partially destemmed. (Note that even today Guigal's La Landonne is not destemmed, with the exception of the difficult harvest of 2002.) Destemming decisions may not track what you think you know about vintages. For example, in the very difficult 1993 vintage, Guigal harvested very late. The berries were not completely ripe but the stems were, and no destemming was done. In '95, a year in which the grapes ripened thoroughly, the stems were completely green, and all the stems were removed.x000D According to Philippe Guigal, there are no secrets to the vinification of La Mouline. The fruit spends three to four weeks in the vat, with classic rémontage: 15-minute pumpovers every morning and afternoon. In lighter years, the Guigals don't look for a lot of extraction. Guigal uses no commercial yeasts. Since the La Mouline vineyard ripens early and is usually the first fruit into the cuverie, there aren't yet any yeasts floating around in the air. This normally allows for the equivalent of a cold maceration of five or six days before the fermentation starts. But the must is not chilled, except in years like '97, when the grapes came in already very warm. Since 1981, the wines have been fermented ...

Philippe Guigal provided stark evidence of thex000D difficulty of the 2002 harvest for Rhone Valley growers. Because of the rain and thex000D possibility of quickly spreading rot we moved up our harvest dates three orx000D four times, then picked everything in an amazingly short window," he toldx000D me. All of the Guigals' Cote-Rotiex000D fruit was in by September 20, even the grapes destined for the family's fabledx000D La-La wines. Fruit sugars reached 11.5%x000D for syrah, according to Philippe, but 13.8% for the Condrieu Doriane. There was much less rot in thex000D viognier vines, even in the same parcels as syrah," he added. Guigal fans will not want to miss thex000D house's sensational 1999 Cote-Rotie special cuvees, which will be shipped inx000D late winter.

Marcel Guigal, the locomotive of the Northern Rhone Valley, has added another couple of cars to his train with the purchase of the Jean-Louis Grippat domain and the house of de Vallouit, both deals consummated in 2001. Following the permission granted by authorities to use the lieu-dit Saint-Joseph to distinguish the wine made from Grippat's prime holding at the original heart of the appellation, Guigal will offer no fewer than three red Saint-Joseph bottlings beginning with vintage '99. Guigal also picked up Hermitage vines through both purchases; previously he owned no vines in this appellation. Also beginning with the '99 vintage, there will be a negociant bottling of Crozes-Hermitage, made entirely from hillside fruit. My meeting this year with Marcel's son Philippe climaxed, as always, with a barrel tasting of three vintages of Guigal's fabled Cote-Roties La Mouline, La Turque and La Landonne, always a highlight of my annual Rhone Valley tour.

According to Philippe Guigal, the fruit in Cote-Rotie ripened ahead of Hermitage in '99, an infrequent occurrence that may have had something to do with the timing and extent of late summer rains. As a result, the harvest generally started later in Hermitage, and some growers were affected by a soaking rainstorm on September 25. Guigal Cote-Rotie crus from this vintage, however, were picked at glorious levels of ripeness. Though still more than two years short of bottling, they are some of the most exciting unfinished red wines I've ever tasted. Another standout of my annual tasting chez Guigal was the 1998 Hermitage; I sampled the major components of this unfinished wine and came away convinced that it would be Guigal's strongest Hermitage since the great '90.

The Guigals recently completed yet another major expansion of their winemaking facility and with the purchase of some state-of-the-art bottling equipment can now produce magnums for the first time. Still, said Philippe Guigal, they will be extremely hesitant to make magnums of La Mouline, La Landonne or La Turque, as demand for these bottles already far exceeds their supply. The Guigals, who tend to release wines later than most of their Rhone Valley colleagues and usually bring out new vintages in October, had just released several '96s from major appellations (Hermitage, Cote-Rotie, Chateauneuf du Pape and Gigondas). While these wines were distinctly higher in acidity and more tightly wrapped than most of the '97s and '98s I was tasting on my recent trip, they were consistently stylish and aromatically intriguing. The '96 cru bottlings, still in barrel in November, boast richness that transcends this rather "northern" vintage, thanks to late harvesting that lasted until the middle of October.