1997 Côte-Rôtie La Turque

Kitchen W8 is well worth seeking out. I enjoyed the local, relaxed ambiance, perhaps things moving at a slightly slower pace here than elsewhere in the city. Prices are more reasonable than many, especially for lunch and early evening, and the quality of cooking is very assured and unpretentious.

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.

Following the construction of a huge new winemaking facility in 1993, Marcel Guigal quickly found that he was once again running out of space-not just for barrel storage but for bottling and labeling wines fast enough to keep up with worldwide demand for his wines. So Guigal is building yet another facility adjacent to the new one. On my recent visit, I tasted at length with Guigal son Philippe, who recently joined his father full-time following the completion of his wine studies and several stages in Bordeaux, California and Australia. Guigal's habit of late harvesting has clearly worked to his favor in '96 and '97; his cru bottlings of Cote-Rotie will be at the top of their respective vintages (even if the '96s were difficult to taste in early December).