100% Syrah

Food pairings: Red meats, roast or grilled lamb, duck breast, venison and other game, and firm, aged cheeses.

Winemaking: The grapes are vinified the traditional way, fermenting in stainless steel vats at high, carefully controlled temperatures with a long maceration of about three weeks. The wine then ages for 24 months in oak barrels, which refine its tannins while keeping the Syrah's freshness, fruit and spice. 2021 was a cool, demanding vintage in the northern Rhône, with spring frost, plenty of rain, cooler temperatures and a later harvest reminiscent of the 1990s; it gave Crozes-Hermitage reds that are charming and pleasant, with well-rounded tannins. It drinks well now and will keep for around eight years.

Vineyards and terroir: Crozes-Hermitage is the largest appellation of the northern Rhône, spread over warm, well-drained, pebbly soils around the famous hill of Hermitage, partly on slopes. Guigal's Crozes comes from vines about 35 years old, mostly on hillsides in the villages of Gervans, Mercurol, Larnage and Crozes-Hermitage itself, on limestone, clay and silt soils and sandy gravels.

Family and history: Étienne Guigal arrived in Ampuis, in the heart of Côte-Rôtie, in 1924 at the age of 14 and founded Maison Guigal there in 1946, going on to make 67 vintages. His son Marcel took over in 1961, when Étienne was struck by temporary blindness, and from 1973 he and his wife Bernadette worked hand in hand to expand the family business into one of the great names of the Rhône Valley. In 2001 the family took over the Jean-Louis Grippat and de Vallouit estates, strengthening its place in Hermitage, Saint-Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage. Marcel's son Philippe officially joined as winemaker in 1997, and since 2003 the house has had its own cooperage at Château d'Ampuis, crafting nearly 1,000 barrels a year so its great wines can age in made-to-measure oak. Every day, father and son still work on their blends together in the family tasting cellar.

In the pictures: The village of Crozes-Hermitage in autumn, with its vineyards climbing the slopes behind it (photo: VM Photos France, 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped). A cooper at work in Maison Guigal's own cooperage at Château d'Ampuis (photo: courtesy of E. Guigal).