2003 Hermitage

The latest technological marvel added to the Guigal fortress is a device that features rising and swinging hydraulic arms with suction cups that pick up a set number of bottles and quickly but gently set them into layers inside cases, sending them down a conveyor belt and ultimately neatly taping the boxes shut and kicking them off the line. The entire process takes about ten seconds per box, which must be a good thing for an operation that sells close to six million bottles a year, all of it raised and bottled under this enormous roof. Then there's the now-completed cellar across the Route Nationale, bigger than a football field, which houses the stainless steel tanks for Guigal's Cotes du Rhones. You find yourself wondering if you've been transported to the Central Valley-of Chile or California-until you realize that this is a family company, run by a mere three members, at least two of whom are rarely out of your sight during a four-hour visit. As for the wines, Philippe Guigal is very pleased with his 2006 whites. He describes them as "elegant, precise and very well balanced, with plenty of immediate appeal but the capacity to age." The 2005s, he adds, will benefit from patience. "The 2006 reds in the north will surprise people with their ability to age," he told me. "Sure, 2005 is the vintage you'll want to put away, and the 2006s will mature more quickly, but 2006 has a lot to offer both early and later."