95% Marsanne, 5% Roussanne

Food pairings: Fish and shellfish, especially scallops and pan-fried white fish fillets, roast chicken, veal carpaccio, fresh goat cheeses and more mature cheeses.

Scores:

• 95 points, Jeb Dunnuck

Winemaking: The grapes are picked by hand and pressed slowly, allowing a little skin contact, before a cool, temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel that preserves the wine's aromas. It then ages for 12 months in oak barrels, part new and part once-used, all crafted in the family's own cooperage at Château d'Ampuis. The 2022 growing season was one of the hottest and driest on record in the northern Rhône, and mid-August rain brought welcome relief; the small crop gave a concentrated, full-bodied white whose natural freshness keeps it precise and balanced. It drinks well young and will reward around ten years in the cellar.

Vineyards and terroir: This is one of Guigal's "Treasures," the single-vineyard wines from the house's most legendary plots. It comes from the vineyard registered in the land survey under the name "Saint-Joseph," the very hillside that gave its name to the appellation when it was created, and one of the finest sites of the northern Rhône. The vines, between 20 and 75 years old, grow on steep slopes of layered gneiss streaked with granite on the right bank of the Rhône. The Saint-Joseph name itself goes back to the Jesuits of Tournon, and the wines of these slopes were already served at royal tables in the 16th century. The parcel came to Guigal with the purchase of the renowned Jean-Louis Grippat estate: the Guigals had hoped to buy only Grippat's Hermitage vines, but he would sell all or nothing, and a visit to this vineyard won them over. The label portrait of Saint Joseph is the work of Roger Pfund, the Franco-Swiss artist best known for designing banknotes.

Family and history: Étienne Guigal arrived in Ampuis, at the heart of Côte-Rôtie, in 1924 at the age of 14 and founded his own house there in 1946, going on to make 67 vintages. His son Marcel took over while still very young, when his father was struck by temporary blindness, and with his wife Bernadette built the house into the benchmark of the Rhône Valley. In 1995 the family bought the historic Château d'Ampuis on the banks of the Rhône, and at the turn of the millennium the purchase of the Grippat and de Vallouit estates brought them prized vineyards in Saint-Joseph and Hermitage. Today Marcel and his son Philippe, the winemaker, run the house together with their wives, Bernadette and Eve, true to the family motto "Nul bien sans peine": nothing good comes without effort.

In the pictures: The Château de Tournon on the banks of the Rhône, with terraced vines climbing the granite slopes above the town (photo: Charcutaille, 2008, CC BY-SA 3.0). The Guigal estate buildings in Ampuis (photo: Guerinf, 2023, CC BY-SA 4.0).