Marcel Guigal, the son of founder Étienne Guigal (hence the name of the firm is É. Guigal), planted their portion of the La Landonne vineyard in 1975 to celebrate the birth of Philippe, his son. Marcel acquired their 2.3-ha of La Landonne over the years by buying plots from various growers. (The remainder of La Ladonne is split among six other estates.) With its 45º slope, La Landonne, planted entirely to Syrah, is on one of the steepest slopes in all of the Côte Brune. There’s more clay in the schist along with iron oxide and manganese, which Philippe thinks helps gives the wine its power and tannic structure. Despite the lack of Viognier, great aromatics explode from the glass of the glorious and youthful 2022 La Landonne. It’s tightly wound at this stage, with power ready to explode from underneath the fine, but prominent, tannins. As it sits in the glass, intriguing layers of spice and other savory notes emerge from this racy and mineral-paced wine. As with all Guigal’s “LaLa” wines, La Landonne spends 40+ months in new oak barrels, but without showing intrusive oakiness in the finished wines. It’s the most structured and powerful of Guigal’s LaLa’s, and benefits from at least a decade of age.
98 Michael Apstein – June 17, 2026