2014 E. Guigal La Turque Côte-Rôtie 750 ml

Few wines are worth risking our lives to better understand, but most collectors would argue that Guigal’s La Turque is one of them. 

There are the top Rhône producers, and then there’s E. Guigal, whose mythical, single-vineyard, small production “La-La” reds—La Landonne, La Mouline, and La Turque—have garnered 30 perfect 100-point reviews from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. That’s more than Château Petrus, Lafite-Rothschild, Haut-Brion, Mouton-Rothschild, and Margaux. 

Combined.

And last year, deep in the heart of the Guigal cellar labyrinth where the La Las are safeguarded, the 98-point 2014 La Turque had us positively weak in the knees—well before we braved its vineyard’s vertiginous slopes. 

Enthralling all five senses the moment this powerful, midnight black elixir hits the glass, fresh wild raspberry and cassis aromas wind their way through an intoxicating and aristocratic perfume of dried thyme and pink peppercorn, sending shivers down our spines. Rich and unctuous on entry, the commanding palate plunges through layers of smoke, cedar, and cocoa powder while maintaining an impressively svelte balance of tannin and lift. 

We adored every La La we tasted that day, but were particularly enchanted by the masterful power of La Turque, recalling why it’s often dubbed the Goldilocks of Guigal's famous trio. 

Founded in 1946, Guigal’s underground cellar started small, but every expansion over the last 74 vintages meant digging new corridors each time, resulting in one of the most sprawling cellar mazes we’ve ever encountered. 

Fearing we’d never find our way out if we got lost, we stayed close to our hosts, Marcel and Philippe Guigal, who “consistently fashion some of the greatest wines in the world,” according to Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate—not to mention the Côte-Rôtie’s most sought-after bottles. It’s hard to sum up just how influential the Guigal name has become in the Rhône Valley over the course of just three generations, but Marcel and his son Philippe’s relentless work ethic and the greatest collection of vineyards in Northern Rhône have cemented their place atop the hierarchy.

Once they led us to their La Las, our only fear was that we would eventually have to leave.

Of the 2014s, the Wine Advocate went on to say, “La Turque came to the head of the class as the most approachable, exciting and elegant of the three La Las.” Its grapes come from the northerly Côte Brune subsection with its dark, iron-rich schist soils, which give the wine its brooding minerality. Aged 42 months in 100% new French oak, it’s co-fermented with a dash of Viognier, and bottled unfined and unfiltered to preserve all its inherent character and verve. 

As we worshipped at the underground altar of La Turque, Marcel and Philippe kept punctuating their descriptions of its infamously craggy vineyard and its wondrous effect on the wind-swept, sun-kissed grapes by puffing their cheeks out, sighing, and shaking their heads, as if they were talking about an untamable child prodigy. We knew we had to pry ourselves away from La La land and see it in person. 

Within less than an hour, we went from a cavernous web of tunnels to the precipitous peak of the Côte-Rôtie. One false move and we would have plummeted hundreds of feet to our doom. Clinging to these slopes were the gnarly, old, single-staked Syrah vines responsible for one of the defining wines of France. 

To farm slopes like that day after day requires a special level of skill and devotion that we could still taste as we crawled our way back to safety, vowing to never call a wine “to-die-for” unless it’s a La Turque.  

As Parker himself put it, “No one does it better; no one has done it longer; and no one seems to have the Midas touch” quite like Guigal. After our visit, we’d only add that no serious wine collection is complete without La Turque. It’s an honor to be able to offer it for the first time ever.