2016 E. Guigal La Mouline Côte-Rôtie 750 ml

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. 

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. And no wine shows it better than the 2016 E. Guigal La Mouline Côte-Rôtie. Jeb Dunnuck called it “heavenly Syrah” in his 98-point review, proclaiming it one of his “favorite wines in the world.”

La Mouline is one of the oldest vineyard sites in Cote-Rotie: Its walls date back 2,400 years, and its vines go back to the 1890s. Guigal’s first single-vineyard wine came from La Mouline, a tiny vineyard located on the lighter soils of the Côte Blonde and planted to about 11% Viognier. Adding that white grape gives the iconic wine an elegant lift—it’s known as one of the most graceful of Guigal’s Côte-Rôties.

From the vertiginous slopes of Côte Rotie, this is a wine that will thrill your senses, no matter when in the next few decades (or beyond) you decide to open it.