Bordeaux may get all the headlines, but there’s more syrah planted in France than cabernet sauvignon.  The Rhône valley has all the famous, top-notch vineyards, but they are tiny in comparison to total plantings, which are widespread across the whole south of France, where syrah is normally blended with grenache, plus cinsault, mourvèdre (mataro) and carignan.

Rhône valley vineyard

Things are quite regulated in the Rhône valley. And the northern Rhône is tiny in comparison to the southern Rhône. The northern ‘crus’ appellations including Cornas, Côte-Rôtie, Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage and St. Joseph account for only 5% of total Rhône valley production.

The rest is from the broad rolling terrain of the southern Côtes du Rhône and Côtes du Rhône-Villages appellations as well as the likes of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas and Vacqueyras.

In total, France has about 70,000 ha of syrah spread over all these regions, compared to Australia’s 44,000.  But this is just 8.5% of the vineyard area in France whereas Australia has made a massive feature of shiraz, which accounts for more than a quarter of the country’s total vineyard area.

At the crème-de-la-crème end of syrah wine, Côte-Rôtie vies with Hermitage for top dog slot, and it’s often personal preference. They’re on different sides of the river, the ‘roasted slopes’ of Côte-Rôtie face the warm east and south, and the appellation allows the use of viognier in the blend, something that’s also become very trendy in Australia.  Meanwhile Hermitage is considered more muscular and tannic, the slopes face mostly west and south, and the wines must be made 100% of syrah.  The total production of these two appellations combined is in the region of 160,000 cases. Rarity value alone stretches the imagination.

The Hermitage appellation, at just 130 ha, is a hard, granite hill, an outcrop from France’s Massif Central, separated from it by the River Rhône. The river was forced to take a nearly west-east squiggle past the 344m high hill on its way south to the Mediterranean sea.  The west sides, those facing across the river to the Massif, are therefore all granite-based soils. On the east side of the hill, soil influences come more from the Alps, with glacial deposits.

Jaboulet Hermitage

One of the most iconic Hermitage wines is Jaboulet’s La Chapelle. This chapel of Saint Christopher has been owned by Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné since 1919. Caroline Frey, their winemaker said: ”one of the particularities of La Chapelle is to blend all the different terroirs of Hermitage – Méal, Bessard, Rocoules, Murets – that’s why the wine is so complex and so well balanced, with such a long ageing potential.”

Michel Chapoutier, the seventh generation to run his eponymous business, whose L’Ermite wine is also from Hermitage added, with “the same grape you have different expressions in different soils – the granite part of Hermitage is graphite dominant, in Méal, you get ink.” On this basis a winemaker can choose whether to blend different parcels, as in La Chapelle, or create a unique expression of a single vineyard site, as in L’Ermite. 

Other appellations also have different expressions, he said: “Côte-Rôtie gives black olive and bacon, Cornas is fig leaves.” Chapoutier didn’t restrict his comments to France; he also works in Australia and said of his projects there “the Cambrian rock at Heathcote gives a concentration with ink and violet [and] in the Pyrenees, on schist, it is liquorice and pepper. Even with same clone, we have different expressions thanks to soil.” Terroir, or site-specificity clearly influences syrah’s flavours.

Côte-Rôtie is a little bigger than Hermitage, but still only musters 224 ha in total. It’s generally less tannic, and the best are more floral, fragrant and elegant than Hermitage. Guigal is one of the best regarded proponents of the appellation, and his single vineyard wines La Mouline, La Turque and La Landonne are some of the most sought-after wines.

Guigal Côte Blonde

Philippe Guigal, general manager and winemaker at E. Guigal took up the terroir theme for syrah in the northern Rhône. In terms of quality, he said: “high quality parameters are the vineyard and terroir, and the people behind the terroir. We have a lot of winemakers who counterbalance what is normally done by terroir and nature. On the Côte Blonde, we expect very fine, delicate wines. Brune has more tannins, more structure.” He said some winemakers might do more pumping over on Blonde fruit to counter its delicacy, But at Guigal he added, the “balance is the opposite: if the terroir says the wine should be fine and delicate, we want to keep the level of finesse and delicacy. And to keep the phenolic potential of Brune.” Their ‘Blonde et Brune’ Côte-Rôtie is a blend of fruit from these two vineyards. And the Guigal vineyards are co-planted with a tiny percentage of viognier, as permitted in the regulations. It is all picked at the same time and fermented together with the shiraz.

Given that the northern Rhône appellations account for just 5% of total Rhône production, it is no surprise that the main producers also run merchant businesses in the southern Rhône, buying in fruit and wine, blending it and bottling under their own label, for each appellation. In this respect it’s no different from the bigger Australian companies buying fruit in several regions.  Guigal’s Côtes du Rhône is probably one of the best known brands. Philippe Guigal said: “we taste blind finished samples on a large scale.  Every day [after harvest] we receive 50-60 samples and we select one or two each time. 90% of the time, we buy wine from the same people” even though the wines are tasted blind, which shows both the consistency of the tasting and of the growers.

There are more than 6,000 wine growers in the Rhône Valley, so this type of business is important for Rhône brands. The big southern Côtes du Rhône appellation has different regulations again, and here syrah is a contributor to the blend, which contains grenache, as well as mourvèdre. Syrah adds berry fruits, structure and some fine tannins to a Côtes du Rhône blend. Guigal’s usually has at least 50% syrah, and more in poorer vintages to preserve the structure, while Jaboulet’s Parallèle 45 is usually around 60% grenache with 40% syrah.

But it’s not just the bigger players that run their business as a combination of estate and merchant sectors. Château Mont-Redon started out as a Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate. But since the mid 1990s, said owner Jean Abeille “we conduct two different activities – producer with a wine range under the ‘Château Mont-Redon’ label and wine merchant activity under the ‘Monredon’ brand.” This keeps estate separate from brand, but more than hints at the link.  He said they started partly as a response to customer demand and also for their children who will one day inherit the business.  

So just in the Rhône valley, the wines may be 100% syrah, in the north, or 10% or more in a Côtes du Rhône blend – the original GSM (grenache, syrah/shiraz, mourvèdre) wines.  There’s also plenty of syrah planted in the Roussillon and Languedoc, all across the regions that border the warm Mediterranean Sea, offering syrah a climate that makes it smile.

The Guigal family is one of the iconic producers of the Rhône Valley in France., and the northern Rhône appellation of Côte Rôtie is at the very heart of the company.  Syrah (shiraz) is grown here, and a little viognier.  No other grapes are permitted to be grown.

Marcel and Philippe Guigal

Guigal was founded by Etienne Guigal, in 1946, in the town of Ampuis.  It became one of the leading international lights of the Rhône under the auspices of Etienne’s son, Marcel who almost single-handedly led the revival of the small appellation, after he took over the business in 1961.

Third generation Philippe is now at the helm of a substantial business, having taken over twelve years ago, when he was just 22. And, with three degrees, (from the Universities of Dijon and Bordeaux, and an International MBA where he studied in 17 countries), as well as a life-time of wine experience, he is well placed to take the company to its next natural level.

Côte Rôtie

The appellation Côte Rôtie, which translates as ‘roasted slope’, extends to just over 200 hectares (ha), and includes some of the most inhospitable vineyard terrain, where some vineyards have a slope of 45° – impossible to work but for the most determined of manual labour.  Machines are unheard of. It’s even too steep for animal labour.  Many of Guigal’s vineyards on such slopes.

Côte Rôtie

The area oozes viticultural history from every leaf pore. Records show vines were cultivated here 2,400 years ago.

Côte Rôtie is a special spot where the river Rhône bends to expose vineyards to a perfect south-east aspect (considered ideal in European climes to capture the morning and day-time sun through the day). This aspect also protects the vines to some degree from the cold winds that buffet the northern Rhône.

Traditionally the appellation is split into the ‘blonde slopes’ – Côte Blonde –  and the ‘brown slopes’ – Côte Brune –  and a certain style of wine emanates from each patch of dirt, or terroir, as the French might say. Philippe explained: “Côte Blonde has schist soils of a calcareous nature, and mostly southern exposure. It expresses finesse [of syrah]. Côte Brune extends to the north, the soils have more clay and iron oxides, thus producing more powerful and structured wines“ with a deeper colour.  Guigal’s ‘Brune et Blonde’ label blends wines from both these slopes.

Winemaking

Guigal’s philosophy on the use of oak might raise a few eyebrows in Australia. The top wines spend three and a half years in 100% new oak as part of their maturation.  Philippe said: “my father and grandfather were fascinated by the history of winemaking. They read in 150 to 200 year old books that the first growths [in Côte Rôtie] were aged for 4 years in new pièces”.  A pièce is a barrel of 228 litres, which is three litres bigger than the size of oak barrel commonly used – a barrique, at 225 litres.

“When my grandfather and father started to buy vineyards in the 1960s, they worked on these purist traditions, which was very controversial in the 60s.  Most producers were using 40 to 50 year old chestnut barrels at that time.”  Philippe stressed “you cannot leave every wine for so long in oak because you would get oak juice.  You have to know the terroir and the vinification.”

Apart from the oak thing, Philippe often gets asked about the use of viognier with syrah, which has become enormously trendy over the past few years in Australia.  Côte Rôtie is both the birthplace of syrah, and of syrah-with-a-bit-of-viognier, and it is to this French appellation that countries such as Australia, California and South Africa look for inspiration with the syrah grape variety.  But Philippe has been unable to help new world producers, because, he said: “the vineyard is co-planted with viognier. It was done 70 years ago, and when a viognier vine dies, we replace it with a viogner. We try to keep the percentage of viognier consistent.”

Château d’Ampuis

Château d'Ampuis

The Château is the family home and business headquarters, having been bought in 1995, and painstakingly restored over the subsequent eleven years.  The oldest parts of the Château are from the 11^th and 12^th centuries, with the Château itself dating from the 16^th century. Coming full circle, the Château is where, in the 1930s, Etienne met Philippe’s grandmother, Marcelle, when she was working there as a housemaid.  Now it is a national monument, said Philippe, “we do a lot of receptions there, all the growers [in the Côte Rôtie] can use the Château if they want”.  Phillipe said that after their first growths of La Landonne, La Turque and La Mouline – top-top wines made in tiny quantities – the very best fruit goes into the Château label.  See below for line up of Guigal’s Côte Rôtie wines.

But the Guigal business is not just Côte Rôtie, as Philippe explained. “We have three businesses. The estate, which is about 60 ha in northern Rhône, on steep vineyards only. We also purchase grapes from small growers in the northern Rhône, where we do all the work and the vinification. And we have a pure negociant business in the southern Rhône where we buy finished wines.” Philippe said their negociant business, though they make their purchasing decisions on blind tastings every year, have found they are often buying wines from the same producers.

The full list of appellations worked by the Guigal family is:

• Northern Rhône: Côte Rôtie, Hermitage, St. Joseph, Crozes Hermitage (red and white), Condrieu.
• Southern Rhône: Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône (red, white, rosé), Gigondas, Tavel

Celebrations

The family were delighted to have won the Winestate award in 2008. Philippe was completely charming and humble when he said: “My father and I are unusual French people. We taste a lot of [syrah and viognier] wines, from Australia, California and around the world. There are outstanding terroirs everywhere, different terroirs.

“I have lot of respect for the traditions in Australia. We share this idea of tasting wines throughout the world, and tasting wines next to each other, where wines are not competitors, they’re just different.”

There was another celebration in the Guigal family as 34-year-old Philippe got married in July 2008.  He married the girl next door … to the family summer home in Corsica. Eve is already part of the business, working on the marketing  and communications for the family, her specialty.