For today’s tasting Wine-Searcher’s Wine Director, David Allen MW, tastes a sparkling southern-french rose, from a well known producer called Mas de Daumas Gassac. the wine in question is Mas de Daumas Gassac ‘Frizant’ Rose Extra Brut 2022.
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+frizzante+rose+mousseux+igp+pays+l+herault+d+france/2022
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hello there today I’m taking a look at a wine from a very influential Southern French estate maduma gasak maduma gasak was created in the 1970s the early 1970s by Amy gber his wife veronik and their family when they bought the maduma a large house that bordered the gasak stream and this is located about 40 km to the west of monel in the longw do now at this state purchased the the estate they were looking for a house the estate had been run down it had belonged to an old man and he he had lived there with his two sisters and he’d farmed but he hadn’t used any Machinery or any chemicals he’d simply plowed with a horse the land had very much run wild but somehow how the G Bears captured the vision to turn this into what is probably these days a world class estate so having purchased the estate in 1970 and with the advice of friend of soil scientist Ari Angel be and and Alo with the renowned enologist Emil poo they they planted Vines and eventually released their first vintage in 1978 the first wine was a red wine predominantly a cabinet s made quite in in a Bordeaux sort of style and and today the red wine is still predominantly cabinet s later on they launched a really quite idiosyncratic quite characterful white wine that is a blend of Southern French varieties Maran rousan with other varieties such as menen shenan shard so a real combination of of of different sort of quite Rich styled French varieties quite individualistic style there’s also a top couet made in the best year named after Emil Peno and they make a sweet wine the last wine that rounds off the range is the Rosé frisant this is a wine that’s really been developed as a a wine just for entertaining for easy drinking it’s not particularly a wine to age it’s just about designed to be an appealing fresh aatif I suppose now the wine is described as being thir shamat in other words tank fermented so it’s not a bottle fermented L like a a champagne or something like that and that helps keep keep costs down but tends to make the the Fizz quite a gentle Fizz the Wine’s also labeled as extra Brew so we can expect this to be bone dry now looking at the label I can’t actually see an indication I’m assuming this is a Vander fron although previous vintages have been Vander pays and igps but there’s nothing to indicate that on the current label which simply looks like that the not say I have say the fruit is handpicked all the fruit on the estate is handpicked they refer to white clay soils now at the top of the estate here the soils tend to be a white broken Limestone so I’m assuming that the Clays are more Valley soils but at this sort of higher level in the cooler up to sort of 2 300 M I think above sea level and this is one of the things about the estate actually that the the gasak valley manages to funnel cool winds at night coming down from the hills above and it actually gives the estate quite a cool climate nature which would suit the production of this kind of style of wine I’ve seen different notes as to what the blend is and I think that’s because the blend has changed over the years in some cases I don’t think people have updated that information from vintage to Vintage in a few places the notation shows this is about 90% cabinet sool with 10% of petty men saying a white variety going in with it in fact I think what happened in 2022 was that the the blend is about 70% of cabon Soo but that cabanon coming from younger plots and that’s simply the freerun juice that comes off the so so some of the freerun juices bled off the younger plots to concentrate the rest of the fruit during mation leaving an available amount of pink juice to make a rosé so that’s about 70% of the blend and the remaining 30% comprises more Vedra P Noir pety mening and a little bit of Muska first fermentation goes on in stainless steel and then the wine goes into a sealed stainless steel tank for its second fermentation which produces the Fizz as I say it’s labeled as extra Brew so I’m expecting this to be bone dry so I’m assuming there’s no dosage added at bottling the wine will simply have been filtered into bottle to remove the yeasts at that stage there’s no Deon going on or anything like that so let’s have a look at the wine shall we first thing to say is that the Fizz has has really already faded I mean this is perhaps not the best glass for keeping the Fizz in I can still see a fine bead rising from the center of the glass there but they’re very fine bubbles there’s not a lot of them the color is a a sort of a a pale orangey pink one might almost sort of say a deep salmon pink as I swirl it this only has 11 and a half% alcohol it’s barely sticking to the glass at all the swirling is releasing more of the bubbles the bubbles here are looking larger it’s it’s not really the fine bead that I was seeing persistently rising from the center of the glass earlier so let’s see what make of the aroma shall we the Aromas are really quite rich and there’s almost a sort of a peach and apricot note to that perhaps that’s that musar petty menang sort of complimenting the the red fruits there but there’s a there’s a richness there’s a warmth it’s very inviting so let’s have a taste on the palette the Fizz is really quite soft seems fairly fine you’re getting those sort of Rich quite juicy Peach nectarine apricots of notes with a sort of a delicate red fruit it’s almost sort of coming through to a sort of slight strawberry note there hints of raspberry at the Finish there’s nice acidity there’s there is good freshness it’s that lovely cooling influence that you get at this estate giving a freshness that’s lasting really well the freshness is is really emphasizing the freshness of the bubbles that were at the the edge of my tongue there’s a lively almost mineral sort of note there that’s lasting really nicely there’s a mineral crispness that’s leaving the Finish dry and fresh yes there’s all that lovely Rich Juicy Fruit it’s finishing up dry and clean there really is a very attractive elegance and length to the wine it’s simple it has no complexing notes of yeast or oak or bottle development or anything like that it really is simply coming across as a fresh enjoyable attractive rosing and the lovely fruit is stopping it from seeing me seeming tart there is a nice roundness to the Finish obviously the 11 a half% alcohol isn’t standing out on the finish and that’s leaving an almost sort of sherbety perfume overlaying the stone fruit and and the red soft fruit on the Finish now I looked at the wine SE aggregated score for this wine and across all the vintages I think it’s 87 and while in some ways that may seem a little harsh I think for what is a well-made white enjoyable and quite simple wine I I think that’s a pretty fair score I mean maybe 88 89 would have been more generous I think it indicates this is a really enjoyable drink it’s certainly not one that I would try to AE so yes if you get the chance well worth a go thank you very much 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