Guigal is probably the most prestigious Rhone name in the English speaking world, an Ampuis-based merchant and grower founded by Etienne Guigal, a former cellarmaster with Vidal Fleury, in 1946. Guigal’s son, the modest and quietly-spoken Marcel, now runs the company. One feels that he regards all the press attention he has attracted as a distraction from his main goal of making great long-lived Rhone wines. His Cote Rotie wines, the firm’s speciality, are some of the most complex and fascinating red wines in the world.

Guigal owns major holdings in Cote Rotie with prime sites in the Cotes Brune et Blonde, and he also buys in grapes from some forty growers. Fermentations are long, up to three weeks, and the wines are aged in newish casks for 36 months. Of the single crus, La Mouline (sourced entirely from the Cote Blonde) is a sensuous, perfumed wine, very rich, with a lingering aftertaste. La Landonne is burlier, powerfully built with an awesome concentration of flavour.

Top of the range is La Turque, (the first vintage being 1985). It combines the elegant allure of La Mouline with the devastating power of La Landonne, and now commands prices comparable to first-growth clarets.

On a more approachable level, Guigal also produces one of the most satisfying Cotes-du-Rhones available, as well as fine examples of Condrieu and Hermitage.