In our tasting for today Wine-Searcher’s tasting Master of Wine David Allen,our Wine Director. Is lucky enough to be in the South of France, tasting an old wines from the cellars of the Languedoc region’s leading estate, Mas de Daumas Gassac. In the fourth videos from a set 27 shown by the producer in a vertical tasting he picks out the 2001 vintage of Mas de Daumas Gassac Rouge to look at.
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/2001
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hi there today I’m fortunate enough to be at a a property in the south of France in the aalt in the gasak valley M do my GAC and we’ve been invited to a tasting of 27 of the 47 vintages that they’ve they’ve produced and I just wanted to share some of those with you so the first wine that I wanted to look at is the 2001 vintage at this stage the wine is still being labeled as a Vander pay Lal and it’s first vintage had been 1978 so the gar family had taken over the property in the early 60s and during the 1970s had planted Vines here as I say with the first vintage being 1978 plantings are predominantly cabanon I think this is 68.5% caban sool there’s 10.4% of Merlo in here 8.8% of s 6.5% of Cabernet Fran 3.6% of Mero 2.1% of P Noir and 0.3% of tanat and then the balance of remaining 2.5% as other varieties so this is a wine that will have stayed in the producers sellers since it was bottled so hopefully is in perfect condition and just to look at it here got a wine that has a still quite a a relatively dark ruby red color probably only a medium depth of that but it doesn’t seem to be particularly losing color to the rim the alcohol according to the label is 133% or 13.1 according to the statistics on I’ve seen and as I’m swirling it you can see it’s it’s clinging to the glass there’s some viscosity here it’s got some density and have a look at the Aromas shall we on the nose there’s a lovely freshness earlier on when I was tasting this my note just that there fresh ciss and red caram those notes have developed on more now there is a sort of a mushroomy development sitting behind the fruit there’s also sort of a concentrated sweet licorice a dark concentrated note on the Aromas and at the same time there’s some quite High toned red fruit almost floral perfumes sense of taste on the planet that’s a midweight with lovely smooth tannins almost silky there’s a slightly sort of Dusty grip to the nature again those sort of slightly developed tertiary mushroom notes to there from the mid palette but also there’s a there’s a richness is almost as of a dried cranberry note to some red fruit the balsamic nature to the wine as well there’s a lovely freshness that’s underpinning the whole thing and it’s giving it lovely length and in fact the wine is opening up on my tongue as I speak and those sort of beautiful fresh red fruit is fruit is still coming through there must have a juicy malberry note on the finish and the tanins as I say have that slight Dusty grip at the end but generally it’s that juiciness and the freshness now the fact that this only has 13.1% alcohol is enabling those beautiful perfumes and those fruit Aromas to show on the Finish there so it’s a wine that is already fully mature at the same time I don’t think there’s any particular hurry to drink it up it’s freshness and its structure should still keep it going I should imagine probably for another 10 years quite happily still providing quite a s of a developed sort of style but temp nonetheless a wine that has aged beautifully and has grace and elegance thank you very much for watching I do hope you’ve enjoyed the tasting if you have do please press the like button if you’d like to watch more of these tastings it will be fantastic if you subscribe to our Channel I will leave a note in the comments below so that you can find this wine on the wine Searcher website you can see where it’s available what its pricing is and the background details such the very complex blend in the wine is on the website there do you have any comments you want to leave please just pop those in the comments box below we genuinely love would love to hear what you think about the the wines we’re tasting the tastings we’re doing or anything else that relates to this so thank you for joining us and I do hope you manag to find some time to come and join us for another tasting in the near future bye for now