The firm E. Guigal, located at Ampuis, the village of the Cote Rotie vineyards, was founded in 1946 by Etienne Guigal, who had apprenticed at the old firm of Vidal Fleury starting in 1924. Etienne's son Marcel has been wine maker and director since 1962. Marcel has carried on the tradition of the Rhone regions modernize in was that improve, but do not change, the traditional style. In the northern Rhone, traditional wines are vinified with a long maceration with skins and stems, and after pressing are aged in oak casks, large and small, for several years. Traditionally, the wines are racked, but neither fined nor filtered. The maturation and clarification are slow. Guigal's red wines are aged 3 or 4 years in oak before bottling, and hence for sale 1 to 3 years older than most Rhone wines sold today. They tend to be deep in color, strong in flavor, and often rich in alcohol. His vinification in closed vats does not allow the escape of alcohol during the fermentation. With this method and these grapes, chaptalization of the must is not frequently necessary.
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