La Mouline, La Landonne, La Turque

?Guigal's Cote Roties, particularly the single vineyard wines, are exceptional wines. They offer extraordinary flavor intensity, impeccable purity, and awesome length and complexity. The yields from the three vineyards - La Mouline, La Landonne, and La Turque - rarely exceed two tons per acre. Moreover, no one harvests any later. That the wines spend nearly three and one-half years in 100% new oak tells you something about the level of extraction Guigal is able to achieve. While the oak is noticeable for 1-2 years after bottling, anyone who has tasted the 1985s, 1983s, 1982s, 1980s, or 1978s would be hard-pressed to find evidence of new oak. The level of fruit extraction in these wines literally soaks up the oak, making them all the more structured and complex. While all three wines share phenomenal concentration and marvelous perfumes, they could not be more different? Robert Parker

La Mouline
?La Mouline contains the highest percentage of Viognier of the three Guigal single vineyards. The amount can vary, but it is usually between 8-12%. This gives La Mouline the most intense perfume of the trio. While the color is always a dark ruby/purple, La Mouline will never be as black as La Landonne, which is made from 100% Syrah, or La Turque, which may include a small percentage of Viognier. La Mouline is the most seductive of the three wines when young, offering a sweet, chewy, multi-textured style that is impossible to resist. It is also the least ageworthy. While vertical tastings have proven that La Mouline will easily keep for 15-20 years, it can easily be drunk when it is released. La Mouline also comes from Guigal's oldest vineyard, with vines that are over 75 years in age.? Robert Parker
1981 $219.99
1984 $149.99
1986 $239.99
?Warm, generous and packed with fruit flavor, this fleshy wine has broad black cherry, black pepper and mineral aromas and flavors that open up and extend on the finish. Almost drinkable now, but should benefit from cellaring? 93 The Wine Spectator 11/15/90
1987 $259.99
?Enticingly accented by oak and full and rich in flavor, with everything in the right proportions. Ripe plum and black cherry notes are broadened by nutmeg, cedar and vanilla flavors, all bundled in an elegant, supple package. Enticing to drink now. 300 cases made.? 92 The Wine Spectator 7/31/91
1988 inquire
?As long-time readers know, I have given a disproportionate number of perfect scores to Guigal's Cote Roties. And guess what? Guigal's current releases, the 1988s, all merit perfect scores. I thought they were potentially perfect from cask, and now that they are in the bottle I have to believe that they are Guigal's most successful wines since his 1978s. They are even richer than the extraordinary 1985s, and more concentrated than the magnificent 1983s.? 100 Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate 84
1997 $269.99
?The 1997 Cote Rotie La Mouline is not a blockbuster. It is a seductive, opulently-textured effort with gobs of honeyed blackberry and cassis fruit, medium to full body, supple tannin, and low acidity. Notes of vanillin (from 42 months of aging in new oak barrels) are amazingly subtle. Drink this 1997 La Mouline over the next 12-15 years. ? 96 Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate

La Landonne
?Made from 100% Syrah from the Cote Brune, La Landonne's color is nearly black. A true blockbuster, it is a massive, almost impenetrable wine, which, with cellaring, is marked by aromas of smoked game, spicy nuts, saddle leather, and a roasted black fruit character. It is a wine with extraordinary power and forcefulness, as well as more acidity and tannin than Guigal's La Mouline. La Landonne requires 10-15 years of patience. Most observers who have had a chance to see all the vintages of La Landonne since its debut in 1978, agree that it is a wine with 30-40 years of longevity. The beginning of the new century would make an appropriate date for pulling the cork on your first bottle.? Robert Parker
1981 $199.99
1984 $99.99
1986 $229.99
?A big wine in a big vintage. This is meaty, featuring dark chocolate and plum flavors and muscular tannins.? 91 The Wine Spectator 11/15/95
1988 inquire
?Made from 100% Syrah from the Cote Brune, La Landonne's color is nearly black. A true blockbuster, it is a massive, almost impenetrable wine, which, with cellaring, is marked by aromas of smoked game, spicy nuts, saddle leather, and a roasted black fruit character. It is a wine with extraordinary power and forcefulness, as well as more acidity and tannin than Guigal's La Mouline. La Landonne requires 10-15 years of patience. Most observers who have had a chance to see all the vintages of La Landonne since its debut in 1978, agree that it is a wine with 30-40 years of longevity. The beginning of the new century would make an appropriate date for pulling the cork on your first bottle.? 100 Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate #84

La Turque
?La Turque is the newest of the Guigal single vineyard wines. While like La Landonne, it is from the Cote Brune, its character represents a synthesis of La Mouline and La Landonne. The vineyard is on an extremely precipitous slope (a 60 degree gradient), but unlike La Mouline, it is not an old vineyard. The vines were only planted in 1981. La Turque may include 5-7% Viognier. Neither as tannic nor as muscular as La Landonne, it is frequently as concentrated. It can be as compelling as La Mouline. A wine of enormous richness and character, it can be drunk young but also possesses 20-25 years of longevity. Like La Mouline, it exhibits smoky, black-raspberry aromas, but there is always something more kinky, more expansive, and even sweeter about its taste. It is an impressively endowed, majestic wine. Based on the vintages produced since its debut in 1985, La Turque may be the most enthralling and complex of the single vineyard Guigal Cote Roties.? Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate #84
1986 $289.99
?A concentrated, powerful, flavorful wine, just oozing with plum, berry and spice aromas and flavors that are long and sweet on the finish. There 's lots of complexity here already, but it's so tight that it could keep developing well into the next century 250 cases made.? 95 The Wine Spectator 10/15/90
1997 $269.99
?The dense purple-colored, profound 1997 Cote Rotie La Turque (5-7% Viognier added to the blend) offers creme de cassis, licorice, and espresso aromas as well as notions of melted asphalt. Compared to La Mouline, it has additional layers as well as structure, sweet tannin, and exhilarating levels of opulence and ripe fruit. Anticipated maturity: now-2018.? 96 Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate