For today’s Wine-Searcher tasting our Wine Director, Master of Wine David Allen, has the good fortune to be in Southern France tasting an old wine from the cellars of the Languedoc region’s leading estate, Mas de Daumas Gassac. In the second of a set of videos selected from a vertical tasting of 27 of their wines, he tastes the 1982 vintage of Mas de Daumas Gassac Rouge.
The estate also makes a white wine from Petit Manseng, Viognier, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. Mas de Daumas Gassac is a wine producer in the Languedoc region of France, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Montpellier, near the town of Gignac. It is well-known for the high quality of its Cabernet Sauvignon-predominant flagship wine, earning the estate the nickname “the Lafite of the Languedoc”. The winery is built in the foundations of a Gallo-Roman mill and on the site of its former pond. Sited away from established, well-known appellations, the wine has been produced as a Vin de Pays, with recent vintages being classified as IGP St. Guilhem-le-Désert – Cité d’Aniane.
The first vines at Mas de Daumas Gassac were planted in 1972. Véronique and Aimé Guibert had found the property two years earlier while searching for a new rural home; in 1971 their friend, Professor Henri Enjalbert, a geologist with specialism in vineyards told them that they could make Grand Cru quality wines here. The renowned oenologist Emile Peynaud consulted on the first vintage in 1978. Aimé Guibert, who died in 2016 aged 91, was a champion of the Languedoc who became well known for his battles with the Robert Mondavi company. The estate remains family-owned and is run by four of Aimé and Véronique’s five children.
Wines are vinified in stainless steel vats with natural air conditioning provided by two springs running under the cellars. This slows down ferments, allowing complex flavor development.
The Mas de Daumas Gassac red is an aromatic, full-bodied wine made from around 70 to 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon with a mix of 17 other indigenous and international varieties such as Merlot, Malbec, Pinot Noir, and Tannat. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks, aged for 12-15 months in oak barrels, and bottled unfiltered. It can be laid down for several decades, but is also approachable when young.
In exceptional vintages the estate has produced a limited-production wine made with 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon called Cuvée Émile Peynaud. The estate also makes a white wine from Petit Manseng, Viognier, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc, a Rosé ‘Frizant’ sparkling wine and a sweet wine called Vin de Laurence.
Discover more about this wine, see its pricing and find out where to by it on the Wine-Searcher website by following this link: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/mas+de+daumas+gassac+igp+st+guilhem+le+dessert+pays+france/1982
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hello there today I’m at madum mag gasak an estate in the ladok in the eral region and I’ve been fortunate enough to attend a tasting here where we’ve tasted 27 of the 47 vintages of the madag gasc red wine that have been produced and they very kindly allowed me to video some tastings of some of these wines one of the wines that stood out for me one of the earlier wines the 82 unless it’s lost its label there but we can just see that the Vintage has been scribbled on there in pen so they don’t forget what that was but it’s it’s it’s been sitting here in the producers sellers so the wine I think is in lovely condition and of the earlier wines this was a wine that really stood out for me stood out because of its concentration the estate here was founded The Vineyards were pretty much cut from the gig the local Southern French scrub here the sort of thyme and rosemary and various other bushes growing locally by ammy gber with his wife veronique and the family in the early 1970s I think planting planting started in 1972 their first vintage in 1978 now the reason for planting was that they they bought the house it’s a fairly dilapidated property that had been lived in by an old Frenchman and his two sisters had lived with him they’d had animals living in the house there was no running water there was no electricity so when the gers took over they completely rebuilt the house and the Old Mill that sat on the gasak stream eventually became a winery they discovered that the the soil type at the bottom of the gasak valley here was soil that a friend of theirs a soil scientist compared to that that was found in the CI in burgundy so an almost unique soil form formation comprising fractured Limestone and Tiny chips of limestone in in a red Iron rich silt they were advised that this was the sort of soil on which you could create a grown crew and that’s what the family have done over the last 50 years or so rather than ing the burgundy example in fact they planted predominantly cabinet Sor and to plant this they sought out old cuttings of what was a massal selection that had been taken from Bordeaux from crew class Vineyards unknown which crew class Vineyards but of cuttings that had been taken preo so they sought out the highest quality possible Vine stocks and set out to produce the wine so 1982 it’s a fairly early vintage looking at a wine that has 13.2% alcohol it’s 73% cabinet soal as well as the cabinet soal the 7.1% of Merlo 6.7% of tanat 4.8% of S 4.1% of malbet 3.3% of cabet Fran and 1% of other great varieties going into this blend so seemingly quite an Eclectic blend but really a cabinet soond dominated wine that’s softened by the accompaniment of these other varieties so looking at it the first thing that really stood out to me about the 82 amongst the lineup was it has a really lovely depth of color this is almost opaque there’s not a lot of diminution of color to the rim here it’s it’s a sort of a an almost black gruby color the 13.1% alcohol is sufficient to be giving reasonable tears on the side of the glass there as I swir it the AR the Aromas have a rich dark fruit side they also have a sort of tertiary developed mushroom note and then behind that I’m starting to get more than I’d seen previously in this wine notes of the gig it’s this sort of slightly Dusty herbal notes of vegetation that sort of Rosemary and Thyme those sorts of notes there all coming through on the nose there it’s a fairly powerful aroma so let for taste the fruit still seems rich and rounded there’s almost a juicy black currant note however there’s a dustier side to that it’s where those gig Notes The herbal notes come in touches of spice there’s a fine tanic structure running across the whole thing it’s quite silky there are some delicate top notes that are lifted by the good acidity so you’re getting sort of notes of rose petal and that’s a thing at the end there along with a sort of slightly Dusty becoming slightly astringent grip at the Finish there 82 was a very warm vintage and the win’s concentration that’s resulted from that is evident here I think this is a wine at full maturity but at the same time I don’t think there’s particularly a hurry to drink it up I suspect if you come back to this in four or 5 years time you’ll find that it’s in very much the same sort of State it’s acidity is such its fine structure is such that I think this will persist well I mean I’m fortunate here that this is a wine that’s come straight from the producers sellers it’s never been transported it won’t have been agitated or shipped through warm locations or anything like that so it should be in perfect condition now I note that the wine search average score for this wine is 89 I would probably rate the wine in my glass slightly higher than that but then our aggregated critic score possibly includes older wines that haven’t necessarily had such good storage so it’s possible that that’s being a little unfair i’ probably rate this as something like 91 out of 100 myself so thank you very much for joining us I do hope you found this an interesting tasting if you have do please press the like button if you think that any of your friends might be interested we’d be delighted if you share the video with them if you’d like to watch more of these videos do please sign up and follow our YouTube channel it would be great to to see that subscription there have your support if you have any comments you want to to leave please pop those in the comments box below’ be fantastic to see what you think about the tastings we’re doing the wines we’re looking at or anything else that relates to that most importantly however though do please try and find some time and come and join us for another tasting in the near future won’t you bye for now