Syrah's North Star
A new generation of Côte-Rôtie vintners is making some of the region's best Syrahs ever
Stéphane Ogier is standing outside his winery in a residential neighborhood just off the main drag that runs through Ampuis, the modest capital of Côte-Rôtie, in France's Northern Rhône Valley.
An extension on Ogier's cellar is so new, the front door hasn't even been put on. Some of the new stainless-steel tanks will be used for the first time, to ferment the 2008 vintage. It more than doubles the size of the existing winery, a small cramped space located under the house where his parents live and where his father started the family-owned domaine in 1987.
"Now I won't have to move stock out of the way just to get to tanks," says Ogier, 30, with a smile of relief.
As he chats, his parents, Michel and Hélène, drive up. Hélène unloads groceries from the car's trunk while Michel pulls up a chair to join the conversation. The simple, familial scene seems in harmony with its surroundings—a small town backed up against steep slopes where vines cling to rocky soils.
Ogier is one of the best of a new generation of vintners in this dynamic appellation. His new cave is sparkling and modern, but nothing like a grand château; the small facility strives more for functionality than prestige. It's an apt symbol of Côte-Rôtie, where youth and wisdom, innovation and tradition, are working together to create some of the world's best Syrah-based wines.
THE DRIVE TOWARD QUALITY
Côte-Rôtie is thriving, with the hum of business pulsing through Ampuis. The appellation's available vineyard land is nearly fully planted, and an increasing number of vintners are bottling their own wine and selling it for higher prices. The region's top wines, many of which are made in small amounts, are now highly sought after by serious wine collectors. But not so long ago, the vineyards were shrinking and the future of the appellation was threatened. One man deserves the lion's share of the credit for the turnaround: Marcel Guigal. "There is no Côte-Rôtie today without Guigal," Michel Ogier, 64, says matter-of-factly. "He is the locomotive that pulls the appellation."
Founded by Marcel's father, Étienne, in 1946, E. Guigal dominates Côte-Rôtie in production, quality and worldwide prestige. But in the 1960s, Guigal seemed to be fighting a losing battle. The appellation, which was decreed in 1940, had been nearly abandoned, and the town of Ampuis was bustling not with wine brokers but with a market for apricots and peaches grown on the flatter sites lining the banks of the Rhône. Wine prices were far below those for orchard fruits.
Traditionally, the vines were grown in poor soils on the steep slopes (with inclines of up to 60 degrees) that rise above the river. With wine prices low, farming the daunting slopes offered little reward. Centuries-old terraces fell into disrepair, and the appellation dwindled to fewer than 150 acres of vineyards. The small quantity of wine that was made languished in the shadow of Hermitage to the south. Only a handful of vignerons soldiered on. Leading the way was Marcel Guigal, who was forced to take over the domaine at a young age, after Étienne became blind.
Then, competition from other Mediterranean countries began challenging the orchards around Ampuis, and the stone-fruit growers lost their markets. Growing winegrapes suddenly provided a fallback position, and many domaines that had mixed plantings of orchards and vines began to shift their focus to what vineyards they had. At the same time, demand was growing. The appellation was redrawn and expanded in 1966, and over the following two decades, farmers feverishly planted new vineyards.
During the 1970s, a majority of these new vineyards were planted on the plateau above the steep slopes. Though much easier to farm, the plateau generally does not produce grapes with the character or quality of those from the slopes. With these vineyards forming the backbone of the appellation, Côte-Rôtie's quality generally suffered through the 1980s, though Guigal and producers such as A. Dervieux-Thaize, Gentaz-Dervieux and Robert Jasmin were exceptions to the rule. These vintners pushed for more plantings on the difficult-to-farm slopes, knowing that that was where quality grapes would be grown.
"During the '70s, the flatter lands were probably 50 percent of the appellation, but today it's maybe just 20 percent," Marcel's son, Philippe Guigal, 33, says of the shift. "For example, 20 years ago Domaine de Bonserine had 70 percent of its vines on the plateau. But when we bought it two years ago, it was reversed, with 70 percent of the vines on slopes."
Guigal truly emerged on the world stage in the 1980s and 1990s. The domaine was the largest vineyard holder in Côte-Rôtie and purchased grapes from more than half of the appellation's growers. Its annual production, upwards of 30,000 cases of wine, represented one-third of the appellation's entire output. E. Guigal pioneered the practice of bottling wines from specific parcels with its famous "La La" wines, beginning with La Mouline in 1966, and followed by La Landonne in 1978 and La Turque in 1985.
E. Guigal introduced new vinification techniques to the region. These innovations included vinifying in temperature-controlled, stainless-steel tanks rather than enamel-lined cement tanks; employing longer macerations of the grapes for deeper color and greater extraction of fruit; varying the amount of stems used; and maturing wine in new, small barrels and demi-muids rather than large oak foudres.
Guigal also brought technological advancements to the region, including automatic Brix measurement for grapes arriving at the winery, conveyor belts for triage of grape bunches, electronic monitoring controls for fermentation vessels, and state-of-the-art press and bottling equipment. The massive, showpiece winery towers over the main right road that slices through the heart of Ampuis. And as the domaine continued to evolve and grow, its success opened the door for a new generation of vintners to flourish.
Jean-Michel Gerin was among those vignerons to follow in the wake of Guigal's success and set up a domaine, starting out in the 1980s along with a handful of others, including Michel Ogier, Pierre Gaillard, Bernard Burgaud and Yves Gangloff. Some of them made the difficult decision to break away from the safety of selling their family grapes to négociants (with Guigal chief among them) in order to start bottling their own production. Others created their own domaines from scratch and established their own vineyards.
Now Gerin and his contemporaries find themselves looking over their shoulders at the next generation emerging on the scene. Ogier's son Stéphane now runs the family domaine and is among the new generation's brightest stars. Other young vignerons and new domaines now filling the ranks of the appellation include Christophe Bonnefond, Benjamin and David Duclaux, Jean-Michel Stephan, Stéphane Montez and Stéphane Pichat.
Growth has come from the outside as well, as vignerons based in neighboring Condrieu and négociants from farther down the valley have put Côte-Rôtie bottlings at the top of their portfolios, producers such as Yves Cuilleron, François Villard, M. Chapoutier, St.-Cosme, Tardieu-Laurent, Les Vins de Vienne and more.
"That's probably the biggest change," says Pierre-Jean Villa, who runs the small négociant house Les Vins de Vienne, founded in 1996. "There are now as many outsiders in Côte-Rôtie as there are vignerons from within the appellation."
The appellation totals about 560 acres of vineyards, encompassing more than 70 officially designated lieux-dits, or named parcels. It produces a total of about 1.2 million bottles annually. There are 130 growers, more than four dozen of whom bottle their own wine (with about half of those having a viable export presence in the U.S. market). And while the number of growers has remained constant over the years, the number of domaines has nearly tripled in the past 15 years.
"[Competition] is not a problem as long as it's quality-oriented. There is a place for everyone," says Philippe Guigal, who has a prominent role in the massive family-run operation alongside Marcel, who still puts in his legendary 18-plus-hour workdays.
The appellation is teeming with quality and a range of styles, some born of the Guigal tradition, others not. "The image of Côte-Rôtie is of Guigal, because of the volume," says Jean-Paul Jamet, who runs one of the most respected domaines in the appellation. "But the vignerons have their styles. There is a lot of diversity."
STEEP HILLSIDES, DISTINCTIVE WINES
On a map, the vineyards of Côte-Rôtie are jagged in shape, like fingers of flame spreading up from the Rhône River. Their varied exposures produce Syrah grapes with diverse flavor profiles—from dark, tannic and roasted to fresh red fruits, with acidity-driven structures and bright minerality.
The vineyard soils in the northern end of the appellation are composed of schist, some also having high amounts of rust-colored iron oxide; this area, which makes up about two-thirds of the appellation, is referred to locally as the Côte Brune. These soils typically produce darker, more structured wines. At the southern edge of the town of Ampuis, the vineyards feature lighter, sand- and granite-based soils; this area is referred to as the Côte Blonde and is known for producing aromatic wines that have more finesse. (Two smaller lieux-dits carry the names Côte Brune and Côte Blonde as well.) For an in-depth look at the appellation, including some of its more important parcels and main soil types, see pages 66 and 67.
Côte-Rôtie produces only red wines, based on the Syrah grape. But the appellation is distinctive in that the wines may contain up to 20 percent of the white grape Viognier. Viognier is scarce in the Côte Brune, but takes on a critical role in the vineyard parcels of the Côte Blonde region, as the soils there are an extension of the neighboring Condrieu appellation, the qualitative home of this noble white grape.
Viognier vines are typically coplanted in these granite-based vineyards with Syrah, and while few wines contain the maximum allowable percentage of Viognier, many Côte-Rôtie cuvées contain 5 percent or more, including the famed La Mouline and La Turque cuvées from E. Guigal. Viognier is typically cofermented with the Syrah, adding both a creamy, lush mouthfeel as well as aromatic notes of anise and peach and a bright minerality.
With the move away from the plateau, the majority of the vines in Côte-Rôtie are now planted on slopes, which generally produce higher-quality grapes. However, today's vignerons are dealing with another quality issue: the effects of mass plantings following the appellation's expansion during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Those plantings relied heavily on modern clonal selections of Syrah that were favored for specific traits, such as consistent yields or easy-to-manage canopies.
But these modern clones have proved to be problematic. Many are prone to disease, resulting in some vineyards that are now degenerating after less than a generation's time, a period during which a healthy vineyard would start to mature and produce its best fruit. To combat the problem, Côte-Rôtie producers are looking to the past for solutions, such as the Serine grape.
Serine is described by vignerons as the ancient, local variety of Syrah, and it is markedly different from modern selections. "The Serine grapes are more oval in shape, with lots of space in the bunch," says Gerin, pointing out the difference between Serine and modern clonal selections of Syrah. "Serine has lots of violet and perfume; it's very aromatic."
The local growers' syndicate has its own vine nursery for propagating the vines. Brigitte Roch of Domaine Clusel-Roch, Jean-Michel Gerin, Jean-Michel Stephan and other vignerons in the appellation are committed to replanting with Serine vines. Louis Barruol, who produces a négociant bottling of Côte-Rôtie under the St.-Cosme label, won't work with anything but Serine vines.
Gerin now has 5 acres of Serine vines out of his 20-plus acres of vines, as he replants small parcels with Serine rather than continuing with the modern clonal selections he used when establishing his domaine. Domaine Clusel-Roch's 11 acres are entirely planted to Serine, while Jean-Michel Stephan has both 100-year-old and 10-year-old Serine plantings, which he uses for his top two cuvées. Other growers are slowly following suit, replanting bit by bit. But while Serine has a growing legion of fans, modern clonal selections are unlikely to lose favor completely.
"One-seventy-four is a very good one," says Stéphane Ogier, noting the number of a specific clonal selection he likes. "Easy to grow and small production, but with very good quality."
Ogier has decided to hedge his bets; over the past six years, he has planted modern clones as well as Serine plantings in his vineyards. The successful modern clones provide the consistency; Serine, which is prized for its aromas and acidity, can be inconsistent from year to year.
"The problem with Serine is that it does behave erratically from year to year. In bigger years its yield can jump, and the wines can lose focus, whereas with the [modern] clones, even in big years their yields remain more consistent," says Villa, who produces an outstanding Côte-Rôtie labeled Les Essartailles, sourced from leased parcels, for Les Vins de Vienne. In addition, many Côte-Rôtie domaines are small, so taking even one parcel out of production to replant can have a serious economic effect on the domaine.
But as awareness of the problematic modern clones grows, those who have some of the more difficult to harness Serine vines in their vineyards are looking at them as a blessing.
"We are extremely lucky with a large part of our historical vineyards being planted with the Serine vines," says Guigal. "[Serine] is hard to get today, but definitely better [than modern clones]."
Côte-Rôtie's vignerons have a sharp focus on their existing vineyards, as the appellation itself has little room for growth. According to most vignerons, perhaps just 40 acres worthy of Côte-Rôtie status remain. Those won't come into production any time soon, as the INAO, the governmental wine regulatory body that oversees new plantings, allows new vines to be planted at the excruciatingly slow rate of one-third of an acre (per vigneron who applies for the right to new plantings) each year.
Along with the ongoing work to fine-tune the vineyard base itself, Guigal, Gerin and other growers have spent two decades renovating the terraces that allow the vines to hold their ground on the steep slopes, as well as maintaining the precarious, winding roads that provide access to the vineyards. The construction of drainage ditches to funnel erosion-inducing runoff away from the vines has also added to the economic difficulties of establishing a domaine.
"My dad calls the walls his 'piggy bank,'" says Philippe Guigal, in reference to the annual expense incurred in vineyard upkeep. "He just keeps putting the money in, and it never comes out."
WINE STYLES EVOLVE AND COMPETE
Before Guigal made his mark on the appellation, the cellars were rustic and traditional. Open-top wooden fermentors were the norm; grapes were rarely destemmed or sorted for quality; fermentation temperatures were not controlled; and aging took place in large, neutral oak vats where hygiene could be an issue.
Many of the appellation's older vignerons—Jamet, Burgaud, Bernard Levet and others—still follow modified versions of this approach. Though their opinions sometimes differ, these vintners are bound by a common search for minerality in their wines. Their generation typically stands in contrast to younger vignerons and newer domaines, who often take a different tack, producing wines that show more outright richness and power.
"The concept of modern vinification has been the most important change in Côte-Rôtie, as it can sometimes lose the terroir," says Jean-Paul Jamet. "Warmer and more oxygenated fermentations that try to extract the maximum [fruit] lose the finesse."
Many vintners have openly embraced some of the techniques honed over the years by E. Guigal, drawing on aspects of a model that employs new oak aging and more extracting vinifications. Stéphane Ogier ages his top two small-production, single-vineyard cuvées—Côte Rozier and Lancement—in oak for up to 30 months, depending on the vintage. Still, both bottlings retain the respective dark and minerally profiles of the two different terroirs (the Rozier bottling from the north, the Lancemont from a southern parcel). Stéphane Montez, Domaine de Bonserine and Domaine Bénetière also practice long élevages, with varying degrees of success.
Though the image of Guigal's modern style may dominate the appellation, Guigal's actual techniques have not been adopted wholesale. "I am not surprised," says Philippe Guigal. "It's an economic issue. Keeping stocks for three years [in barrel] before selling them is very difficult, if not impossible, for a new, small domaine to do."
In addition to the economic issue, vignerons of both generations are engaged in an ongoing debate over the use of new oak, the size of aging vessels (from barrels to demi-muids and foudres) and the choice to destem the grapes or not. The debate is not simply modern versus traditional however, as the vignerons realize that there is no one recipe, no monopoly on how to produce great wine.
Christophe Bonnefond is among the young vignerons who favor a richer, more vivid fruit profile, fashioning the wines along with his brother Patrick at their eponymous domaine. The Bonnefonds' top wines, single-vineyard selections sourced from the Côte Rozier and Les Rochains parcels, are sleek and toasty, loaded with purple and black fruits. They make a clear contrast with the olive-, tobacco- and mineral-filled wines made by Jamet, Burgaud and Levet, offering a different expression of their respective terroirs. "The terroir comes from the vineyards, if you work the vineyards properly," says Bonnefond. "The style in the cellar is just the vigneron. You don't lose the terroir if the vineyards are good."
Bonnefond established his domaine in 1990; his father, Charles, had previously sold grapes to négociants. When asked what his father thinks of his modern style, Bonnefond says, "Before there was no style, as we didn't bottle a wine. So he can't compare it to anything. But I think he likes it," he adds with a wry smile.
The appellation's diversity has been further accelerated by a proliferation of single-vineyard cuvées, such as those made by Bonnefond, Ogier, Gerin and others—yet another result of Guigal's success with the famed trio of "La La" wines. These cuvées are often made in small quantities and carry triple-digit price tags, but they offer outstanding- or classic-scoring quality while highlighting the many differences between parcels in the northern and southern halves of the appellation.
These crosscutting currents have powered an ongoing cycle of progress and increasing diversity that has put Côte-Rôtie at the top of the Northern Rhône hierarchy. It has simply zoomed past Hermitage in terms of breadth of quality producers, and currently stands as the appellation of choice among collectors when it comes to Northern Rhône Syrah.
Today, both diversity and prosperity reign in Ampuis, driven clearly by the wine industry—and not by peaches or apricots. The combination of a revitalized grape variety and a generational mix of dedicated vignerons has invigorated an ancient terroir. On each progressive trip through the region, one can see new or expanded cellars, from massive showpiece facilities to more modest but no less quality-oriented structures such as the one going up behind the Ogiers' house. In all of them, Syrah's North Star burns bright.
