Guigal, family-owned merchant-grower based at Ampuis, côte rôtie, in the northern rhône. Although established as recently as 1946 by Étienne Guigal, Établissements Guigal is the most famous of any of the Rhône valley’s merchants or growers with collectors and investors. This is very largely due to the efforts of its manager since 1961, Étienne’s only son Marcel, a man of exceptional modesty and a gifted, meticulous winemaker. Guigal owns slightly more than 30 ha/75 acres of prime vineyard in Côte Rôtie, and it was the wines made from three of its best parcels, extravagantly praised by influential American wine writer Robert parker in the early to mid 1980s, that first drew international attention to Marcel Guigal. It would be fair to say that the quality of Guigal’s top wines, along with Parker’s persistent enthusiasm for them among many other Rhône wines, spearheaded a resurgence of interest in the whole region.
