2007 Southern France

The 2007 Mas de Daumas Gassac red includes a combined total of around 20% Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Malbec, and Tannat, and a 10% mixture (like its white counterpart) of assorted, at times exotic varieties. A rather reductive overlay to a nose initially dominated by pungent herbs and smoked meats blows off to reveal mulberry, huckleberry, cedar, iodine, and white pepper. In the mouth, this is firmly textured, juicy, bright, and somewhat youthfully tart and angular. Wet stone undertones add to a sense of austerity, but the wine’s energetic brightness and focused black fruits gain the upper hand in a surprisingly refreshing finish. I don’t perceive this as achieving much richness, but it is likely to become more interesting while retaining its kinetic personality for at least 6-8 years.

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.
(David Schildknecht - Wine Advocate - Jun 2009)

What is so special about the 2007 and how can one possibly tell at such an early stage? These wines are, after all, the ne plus ulta of vins de garde, their longevity fed by the sinewy yet silky Cab. Sauvignon tannins and an undertow of spice, mineral and dark, dark fruit. All these are present and correct, but it is the sheer quality of fruit that is even more manifest than usual, its beguiling and seductive sweetness now in a youthful stand-off with the darker deeper notes, but promising more by way of complexity and potential than we have the right to expect at this stage. This is the signature of a great estate in a superlative vintage.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)