Brilliant rose-salmon color; strawberry, flowers, red apple on a distinctive nose; raspberry, red currant tang, strawberry, red fruits, citrus on the palate.
Extra dry, nice acidity, some tannins, pleasing smooth-soft texture with medium body; clean, classy expression of red fruits with minerality and the citrus and red currant tang presenting on the finish.
Blend of 60% grenache, 30% cinsault, 10% syrah; saignée rosé (wine achieves its color by brief maceration on the skins, not by adding red wine to a white; in other words, grapes are specifically grown and treated through the wine making process to create a rosé). This effort lands in the middle ground between a richly flavored and sweeter New World rosé and the drier, paler efforts in Provence immediately to the west of the Côtes du Rhône area.
E. Guigal was founded by Etienne Guigal in Ampuis, a small village in the heart of the Côte-Rôtie appellation in the northern Rhône, a place where wine grapes have been grown for 2,400 years. Etienne’s son, Marcel, took over management of the operation in 1961 when Etienne suddenly was struck with total blindness. Marcel’s wife, Bernadette joined the team in 1973, and today their son, Phillipe, is the winemaker working alongside his wife, Eve. In 1995, E. Guigal acquired the famed Château d’Ampuis, a landmark in the Côte-Rôtie; it houses the business offices today while wine making and cellaring remain in the village of Ampuis.
E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône Rosé 2015 is another winner from E. Guigal. This will pair well with fish, poultry, white meats, but it has the heft and assertive flavors to play with lighter red meats as well. $14-16
Other photos: E. Guigal vineyard; Marcel and Phillippe Guigal, Château d’Ampuis and vineyards
