The assembled 2007 Mas de Daumas Gassac red – due to have been bottled in March – 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. 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
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