Chateauneuf-du-Pape is the the standard bearer for the Cote du Rhone and Hermitage is its counterpart in the Cote Roti at the north end of the Rhone valley. But just like Michael Jordan took a lot of the limelight away from Scotty Pippen, Gigondas in the Cote du Rhone and Crozes-Hermitage in the Cote Roti don’t get the same press while they produce excellent wines, and at a much lower cost. I promise to do a blog on Gigondas but today the focus is on the 2016 Crozes-Hermitage from Guigal.
Let’s start with Robert Parker calling the Guigal brothers the best winemakers in France. James Suckling gave this wine 91 points and there at not many wines under $30 that get that kind of ranking.
This is a big, full bodied red wine with a deep ruby color and pronounced intensity. It is 100% Syrah and the primary aroma is red fruit, particularly red cherries and the secondary aromas are leather and smoky wood from the 24 months that it is kept in large oak barrels after being fermented in stainless steel tanks. The 2016 had complex tannins that relaxed some when I decanted it. Like many Syrah/Shiraz wines, it has a fairly long finish that I really enjoy.
It will age for at least 10 years and improve significantly from that aging. I bought mine from Wine.com two years ago so it had just been in the bottle 2 years then. I have not done a vertical tasting to prove how the additional two years in my cellar improved the flavor but I put this Guigal wine very high on my list of wines that are a great bargain at under $30.
It has excellent availability with Total Wine and Wine.com carrying the 2017 and 2018 vintages and some online stores still have some of the 2016.
The vineyards are low yield on the hillsides around Crozes-Hermitage and controlling the yield concentrates the flavor. If you like bid red wines, I think you will be very happy paying less than $30 for this wine.
Bill's Thoughts on Wine, Travel, and Food 