Portal:Wine/Selected winery/1
Mas de Daumas Gassac is a French winery located in the wine region Languedoc in the southeast of France, in the commune of Aniane. The wine produced here is classified as Vin de Pays de l'Hérault due to its use of grape varieties outside specifications of its AOC. Despite its modest designation and location, the vineyard has received widespread acknowledgement, described by the The Times to taste like a “Latour” and by the French magazine Gault-Milau as the "Lafite Rothschild of the Languedoc-Roussillon", it is frequently referred to as the Grand Cru of the Languedoc.
On land sold by the Daumas family to a former glove manufacturer Aimé Guibert, wines were first planted at this vineyard in 1974. Following the recommendation of Henri Enjalbert, a professor of Geography at the University of Bordeaux, whose assessment of the terroir determined the microclimate to be uncharacteristically favourable for cultivation of wine in such a warm region, the first vintage was produced in 1978 with the assistance of the oenologist Émile Peynaud. Aimé Guibert has since featured in the documentary film Mondovino, stating that "wine is dead". (Full article...)