Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019 - 58

Top 100 Wineries

O LD WO R LD

E. Guigal

Domaine du Pégau

FRANCE | RHÔNE
Marcel and Philippe Guigal's extraordinary attention to detail
shows at every level of their portfolio, from exalted bottlings
through everyday reds.

FRANCE | RHÔNE
Laurence Féraud and her father, Paul, use traditional techniques
to craft exuberant, generous Rhône reds.

The GuiGals are leGendary in the Rhône, and
not only because of their history. The house does
have a great story, having been founded by a
poor kid who left home to pick apricots in CôteRôtie and ended up launching his own wine
company just after the Second World War. More
drama ensued when that kid-Etienne Guigal-suddenly went blind in 1961, causing his
son, Marcel, to drop his studies and return home
to help. Today, Marcel and his son, Philippe,
preside over an estate that stretches across 334
acres of the Rhône Valley, as well as manage a
robust négociant business fueled by their intimate knowledge of the region's vineyards and
the people working them. The duo, in fact, prefer to work without any long-term contracts;
instead, they consider each vintage and grower
on its own terms, making their purchase decisions every harvest season via vineyard visits and
marathon tastings-they run through more than
200 wines before nine every morning. And they
treat those wines with as much care as the estategrown bottlings, down to extended stays in barrels made at their own cooperage. The level of
attention results in a remarkably consistent portfolio of wines, from delicious Côtes du Rhônes
through exalted Côte-Rôties. -T.Q.T.

PHILIPPE
GUIGAL

2015 Crozes-Hermitage ($28, 96 points) Culled
from parcels in four villages, most of the vines growing on steep, granite slopes, this is a Crozes with
Hermitage bearing. Right now, in its youth, the fruit
flavors are walled off by tannins, oak and the simple density of the extract. Give it a few hours in a
decanter and the structure begins to fill with flavor,
juicy blackberry and plum notes welling up to meet
the austere mineral tension head-on. But it would be
even better to give this another couple years of age
in the cellar.
FOUNDED:

1946

OWNERS:

Marcel and
Philippe Guigal
WINEMAKER/
VITICULTURIST:

Philippe Guigal
ACRES OWNED:

700,000
ESTATE GROWN:

75%
IMPORTER:

Vintus,
Pleasantville, NY
58

FOUNDED:

1987

OWNERS/
WINEMAKERS/
VITICULTURISTS:

2015 Hermitage ($75, 94 points) This is built for
the long haul, with 36 months in oak barrels, half of
them new, contributing plenty of oak spice, sweetness and polish to the deep, plummy flavor. With
time, notes of roses and lilies, caramel and sunwarmed stones come to the fore, giving it a level of
detail and elegance that will increase with age.

334
CASES PRODUCED:

LAURENCE FÉRAUD

2016 Côtes du Rhône ($18, 91 points) Based on
syrah with grenache and mourvèdre and mellowed
in barrels for a year and a half before release, this
is an impressively structured and complex Côtes du
Rhône red, with juicy, spicy plum fruit and enough
firm, earthy tannins to warrant secreting a few bottles
off to the cellar.

WINE & SPIRITS

BUYING GUIDE 2020

Laurence and
Paul Féraud
ACRES OWNED:

183
CASES PRODUCED:

6,700
(Domaine);
12,000
(Château)

The Féraud Family were GrapeGrowers in
Châteauneuf-du-Pape when Laurence Féraud
returned home from Paris in 1986. It had taken
her some years to come around to the idea of
devoting herself to making wine, but she arrived
determined to give it a try. She began by helping her father and grandparents tend their vines,
and soon built a small crushpad in a cellar near
her home. Christening the project Domaine
du Pégau, after an ancient clay wine jug found
in the Palais des Papes in Avignon, she and her
father began selling wines, plowing any profits
back into the vineyards. Today, their holdings
extend throughout the Châteauneuf communes
of Courthézon, La Solitude and Bédarrides, with
parcels dating as far back as 1905; they have
another 101 acres at Château Pégau in Sorgues,
four miles south of their Châteauneuf domaine,
devoted to Côtes du Rhône bottlings. Wine-wise,
the Férauds are staunchly traditional, fermenting their grapes as whole bunches with ambient yeasts and aging them slowly in large, old
wooden casks. Bottled unfined, unfiltered and
with very little sulfur, the wines have an unrestrained generosity and energy that makes them
hard to resist, even while they're built to age.
-T.Q.T.

2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée da Capo
($600, 96 points) This is the second vintage in a
row that the Férauds have bottled this cuvée, which
they limit to exceptional years. The 2016 is even
more intense than the 2015, with a bright energy
that makes it inviting despite its size. A blend of all
13 grape varieties permitted in the appellation, the
wine's stemmy herbal notes lift its masses of dark,
figgy fruit, taking it into higher, fresher registers of
roses and seedy strawberries, cracked peppercorns
and garrigue. Intense now, it's best left in the cellar
for another five years, or even 15.
Vin de France Plan Pégau Lot 14-15-16 ($22, 92
points) Laurence Féraud blends Plan Pégau from
eight varieties (leading with grenache and syrah),
the vines averaging 40 years old, and three vintages
(2014, '15 and '16, in this case). It's a dark, spicy
wine, with a complexity brought about by the marriage of fresh, plummy fruit and the darker, nuttier
tones of maturity.

ESTATE GROWN:

100%
IMPORTER:

Hand Picked
Selections,
Warrenton, VA

2014 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Laurence
($120, 90 points) This is identical to Pégau's Cuvée
Réservée, except it's aged in barrel longer. The 2014
is mellow and earthy, with gamey, herbal tones carried with a seductive caramel richness.

Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019

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