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  • Country ranking ?

    309
  • Producer ranking ?

    20
  • Decanting time

    2h
  • When to drink

    now to 2030
  • Food Pairing

    Roast kid with honey and confit pears

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

La Mouline is a steeply terraced amphitheater on the Côte Blonde, a shape that shelters the 2.5 acre site from the wind and acts as a heat trap.  Soils are gneiss with lightly colored silicone containing limestone loess.  The site is planted to 89% Syrah and 11% Viognier, with the two varieties picked together and co-fermented. This extra dose of Viognier gives La Mouline its telltale aromatic complexity and additional softness and roundness; it is often called the most feminine of Guigal’s Côte-Rôties.

 

La Mouline is historically the oldest vineyard in Cote-Rotie, with walls dating back 2,400 years, and today its vines are the oldest in the region, averaging 90 years of age, with the oldest dating back to plantings in the 1890s, just after phylloxera. Acquired in 1966, this was Guigal’s first single-vineyard Côte-Rôtie.

The wine sees traditional pumpovers, and alcoholic fermentation and maceration last around 4 weeks.  Aging is for 42 months in new oak barrels made at the Chateau d’Ampuis cooperage.

 

In order to enhance quality the Guigals worked to acquire ownership in vineyards. Purchased in 1965, the just under one-hectare La Mouline plantation, which is located on the slopes of Côte Blonde, set the stage for the Guigals’ present reputation. Introduced the very next year, the La Mouline single-vineyard proved to be a smashing success, and the active acquisition of vineyards continued. However, it would be more than 10 years before the Guigals introduced their next single-vineyard wine, the La Landonne, in 1978. Just over 2 hectares in size, the plot was purchased piece by piece from 17 different small-scale growers.

The Guigals finally revealed their true greatness in 1984 when they acquired the oldest winemaker in the Rhône, Etienne’s former employer, Vidal-Fleury. This significant acquisition instantly made the Guigals the leading producer in the Côte-Rôtie region, giving them a 35% share of the entire region’s output. This new acquisition also gave the Guigals ownership of Vidal-Fleury’s La Turque plot. Introduced in 1985, the La Turque cemented Guigal’s reputation as one of the most prestigious producers of single-vineyard wines in the Rhône. The single-vineyard wines gave the Guigals the authority that helped them to profile their production from the Côtes-du-Rhône wines on. This is how Guigal evolved into the region's leading commercial AOC brand, whose only real contender is, for the time being, Paul Jaboulet Ainé.

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Wine Information

On arrival at the winery in Ampuis, the grapes are crushed and destemmed, and fermented at relatively high temperatures, with pumpovers but no punching down of the cap, as Guigal does not want to extract too much tannin. Vinification of the three single-vineyard wines varies, being adapted to the nature and quality of the fruit. From the start La Mouline was aged entirely in new oak, and reports that the 1969 was partly aged in older casks are erroneous. The racking of the wine varies according to the vintage, but the wine is neither fined nor filtered.
 

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Average Bottle Price

2016 2015 2013 2010
4 780€ +6.5% 4 490€ +16.5% 3 855€ +17.2% 3 288€

This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.

Tasting note

color

Full

ending

Long

nose

Intense

recommend

Yes

taste

Concentrated, Well-structured, Round, Harmonious and Rich

Written Notes

In 1969 nature was very kind to the hard-working winemakers in the Rhône. It was no wonder that most of them made excellent and long-lasting wines, and of course Guigal made no exception. To us La Mouline 1969 is the wine of the year in Rhône.
The bottle was in a first-class condition, ullage was only two cm. Decanted for two hours. Highly coloured core and rim. Very strong and spicy open bouquet. Exceptionally harmonious and fat in the mouth with sufficient concentration. Good structure and balance. Lots of ripe, spicy fruit and some rounded and ripe tannins. Excellent, long, and solid finish. A comprehensive and truly interesting wine, which seems to have reached its peak.

  • 98p

While spectacular in its own right, the 1969 Guigal Cote Rotie La Mouline was a lot more elegant than I remember this wine being, but it might have been ten years since I had it last.  These older vintages of La Mouline are super rare.  I remember this being a 99 point revelation for me before, but this bottle wasn’t that.  Astroman found it ‘like a mature Burg,’ and I saw exactly what he was saying. The Mogul found the ’69 ‘like Stef, but the ’78 was LeBron.’  He then proceeded to put in a bid on the Rockets lol (96).

  • 96p
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Information

Origin

Côte-Rôtie, Rhône

Vintage Quality

Excellent

Value For Money

Very good

Investment potential

Good

Fake factory

None

Glass time

1h

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Côtes du Rhône Red

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Crozes-Hermitage Red

Crozes-Hermitage White

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Ex-Voto White

Gigondas

Hermitage Blanc

Hermitage Red

Hermitage White

La Turque

Saintes Pierres de Nalys Châteauneuf-du-Pape

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Saint-Joseph "Lieu dit" Red

Saint-Joseph "Lieu dit" White

St Joseph Vignes de Hospice

Tavel

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