2005 Mas de Daumas Gassac

The 2005 Rouge is laced with dried cherry, tobacco, mint, sage, leather, coffee and licorice, all wrapped around a core of dark fruit. Tasted next to the 2008, which is at a comparable stage of its aromatic evolution, the 2005 has a bit more fruit and plushness, along with the firm tannins that are such a Gassac signature.

63.1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7.3% Merlot, 7.9% Cabernet Franc, 1.6% Tannat, 3.3% Malbec, 3.7% Pinot Noir, 5.2% Syrah, 7.9% rare varieties. TA 3.53  g/l (sulphuric) , pH 3.49. Rather animal on the nose – sweaty, feral and a little putrid. This must be brettanomyces or similar – it is notably different to the younger vintages. The palate isn’t unpleasant, but it lacks the purity of most examples, and doesn’t seem quite ‘right’. (RH)

Also recommended, but no tasting note given. When Languedoc pioneer Aime Guibert planted his first vines in 1972 and crushed his first Mas Daumas Gassac red in 1978, he was convinced that, improbable though it must have seemed to virtually any other observer at the time, his property and wine would gain worldwide renown. And it did. But a lot of even less predictable changes including grands vins have come to the Languedoc in the last thirty years which Guibert never imagined. Today, the property his children help him to farm has spawned a few experimental cuvees and a parallel line of inexpensive wines from purchased grapes (under the umbrella “Moulin de Gassac,” with several labels), but the flagships remain a Cabernet-based red and (since 1986) a white consisting of Chardonnay, Petit Manseng, Chenin Blanc, and (up to 20%) grapes from a multi-national collection of varieties more diverse than you would find in many a commercial vine nursery. As such, it cannot be said that any other Languedoc growers of note have followed Guibert’s lead in blend or style. These wines appear destined to remain anomalies, while the reputation of the Terraces du Larzac area and the Languedoc as a whole has risen to prominence thanks to a focus on Mediterranean varieties and a style far removed from the “classic Medoc vinification” that Guibert still advertises and that his early mentor the famed Emile Peynaud had in mind. Ironically, the tag line used in Guibert’s promo materials is “Wine as it used to be” (Un vin comme autrefois). Various importers, including Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 559 1040, The Country Vintner Ashland, VA; tel. (804) 752-3670, and Southern Wine and Spirits d.b.a. Lauber Imports, New York, NY; tel. (212) 268–8033