Wine Advisor
Etienne Guigal, Cote Rotie La Turque 1990
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Description
Côte-Rôtie "La Turque" is one of the flagship of the Domaine GUIGAL. A powerful wine with spicy notes, its terroirs from côte brune with “blond accents” lends it a great elegance.
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The 1990 La Turque possesses a meaty, animal, Chambertin-like personality, with a leathery, black-cherry, soy sauce-scented nose, ripe, full-bodied, rich flavors, and outstanding length and richness. I suspect it will be even better once it is in the bottle. I should note that I tasted it on August 30th, one month after it had been racked. 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. I do not think anyone can adequately articulate the multitude of aromas of flavors they possess, but let me try. La Turque is the newest of the Guigal single vineyard wines. While it is from the Cote Brune, its character represents a synthesis of La Mouline and La Landonne. La Turque 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 also include 5-7% Viognier. Neither as tannic nor as muscular as La Landonne, La Turque is frequently as concentrated. It can be as compelling as La Mouline. While it is a wine of enormous richness and character, it, like La Mouline, can be drunk young, but La Turque possesses 20-25 years of longevity. It also exhibits smoky, black-raspberry aromas, but there is always something more kinky, more expansive, and even sweeter about the taste of La Turque. Like its two siblings, 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 these single vineyard Guigal Cote Roties. All three wines spend 42 months in new small oak casks and are bottled without fining or filtration. Importer: Classic Wines, Boston, MA.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The 1990 La Turque offers an opaque purple color, and an overwhelming perfume of jammy black cherries, cassis, toast, and minerals. With its sweet, generous, incredibly harmonious personality, it is an unforgettable wine.With sweet tannin, low acidity, and one of the most velvety-textured, decadently rich palates I have encountered, this fabulous wine has a finish that lasts more than a minute. Anticipated maturity: 1998-2016. Last tasted 7/96.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The 1990 La Turque offers an overwhelming perfume of jammy black-cherries, cassis, toast, and minerals. With its sweet, generous, incredibly harmonious personality, it is an unforgettable wine. With sweet tannin, low acidity, and one of the most velvety-textured, decadently rich palates I have encountered, this fabulous wine has a finish that lasts more than a minute. The 1990 single vineyard Cote Roties, which were released this spring, are the Cote Roties of the vintage. 1990 was not an easy year in this appellation because of the severe drought and heat wave that stressed the vineyards. As I have said previously, 1991 and 1989 are consistently better years for most of the Cote Rotie producers. However, Guigal has turned in exceptional efforts with its three single vineyard wines. Importer: Classic Wines, Boston, MA; Tel. (617) 731-6644
About the Producer
In 1946, Etienne Guigal founded Château Guigal in the village of Ampuis, the winemaking heart of the Rhône. The village of Ampuis is rich in history, with vineyards that are over 2,400 years old and buildings that still date back to Roman times, and it was here that Etienne Guigal arrived in 1923 at the age of 14. He decided to devote himself to winemaking, which he did for more than 67 years. In 1961, the young Marcel Guigal took over the management of the estate from his father. Thanks to Marcel's efforts, Château Guigal began to acquire some well-known wineries and grew in strength.
1986(1)1987(1)
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