70% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre

Food pairings: Red meats, game, roast turkey, and aged cheeses.

Winemaking: Guigal selects wines from small domaines and blends them into a Gigondas that is true to its origins, yet polished, refined and built to age. The wine undergoes a traditional long maceration and then spends two years in oak foudres, half of them new, before bottling. The 2021 vintage brought frost and hail, lower yields and a late harvest, but produced fresh, structured wines with good acidity.

Vineyards and terroir: Gigondas nestles against the jagged limestone peaks of the Dentelles de Montmirail, northeast of Orange in the southern Rhône, and its winemaking tradition dates back to Roman times. The vines, about 40 years old on average, grow on dry, stony hillsides of ancient alluvium, red clay and gravel, along with sandstone and limestone scree, which give deep-colored wines full of ripe fruit and savory herbs. The Guigals have worked with Gigondas for more than 50 years, long before the appellation won the acclaim it enjoys today, and the important Mourvèdre component lends this cuvée its depth and slightly brooding character.

Family and history: Maison Guigal was founded in 1946 by Étienne Guigal in Ampuis, an ancient village at the heart of Côte-Rôtie, where he had arrived in 1924 at the age of 14 and went on to make wine for 67 vintages. His son Marcel took over in 1961, when Étienne was struck by temporary but total blindness, and with his wife Bernadette, who joined him in 1973, worked hand in hand to expand the family business. In 1995 the family bought the historic Château d'Ampuis on the banks of the Rhône, and in 2003 opened its own cooperage there. Their son Philippe officially joined as winemaker in 1997 and, with his wife Eve, represents the third generation. Every blend is still created by father and son in the family tasting cellar, true to the motto on the walls of the château: "Nul bien sans peine," no pain, no gain.

In the pictures: The village of Gigondas and its vineyards at the foot of the Dentelles de Montmirail (photo: Aocgigondas, 2008, CC0). A carved foudre honoring the founder, Étienne Guigal, in the family's cellars in Ampuis (photo: © E. Guigal, press kit).