Pont de Gassac Rouge 2016

Languedoc

The Herault’s most famous estate, Mas de Daumas-Gassac is often referred to as ‘the Lafite or First Growth of the Languedoc’ - their wines have achieved ‘cult’ status. Pont de Gassac Rouge comes from their vineyards high up in the Gassac valley. 2016 was a great vintage for the estate. This fine blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah is drinking really well now and will last for a good 5 years and more. This is a very well made and serious wine which snaps at the heels of the estate's first wine and at 1/3 of the price is a great bargain.

Our Tasting Notes

Each glass gives a medium bodied, chewy, fresh and lively wine. The dark ruby colour holds a bold bouquet of black fruit on the nose of ripe plum, rose petals and creamy toffee with an added note of aged cheese. The complex palate reveals tart red fruit, black-plum skin and dried herbs with strong tannins and a baked earth, for a great ripe fruity finish. This mouth-filling, roundness of fruit is the hallmark of the Pont de Gassac Rouge. In a word…Yummy!

Wine Data

Grape variety: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah
Appellation: Pays D’Herault
Alcohol: 13%

About

The remarkable story of Mas de Daumas-Gassac begins in 1971, when Parisian glove-maker Aimé Guibert bought an isolated farmhouse high up in the valley of a stream called the Gassac. The Guiberts had no previous knowledge of wine and there were no vines on the estate until a friend from the University of Bordeaux, who specialized in vineyard geology, realised that Daumas-Gassac sat upon the best possible combination of soil for winemaking. This location couples superb drainage and its own unique microclimate with a close proximity to the sea, giving the vineyards natural air-conditioning. Cellars are chilled by waters of the stream to remain wonderfully cool even in the height of summer.
The Guiberts hired the best wine brains available, including Professor Emile Peynaud – a great oenologist associated with Bordeaux. Peynaud advised them exactly which vines to plant and how. Although Cabernet Sauvignon was the grape variety planted for the first vintages, the idea was not to mimic Bordeaux, even though one commentator called the 1982 vintage the ‘Lafite of the Languedoc’. This caused initially slow sales to rocket. The wines of Mas de Daumas-Gassac have a degree of natural austerity that is more akin to the great wines of Bordeaux or the Loire, than the Languedoc.