1992 Mas de Daumas Gassac

Here is a wtn for this vin de pays de L' Herault and a backstory to go with it. The wine itself is distinctively "old world" to this Californian with herbal, cassis, and black olive flavors; a wine of extraordinary smoothness and integration. A nicely oaky, black olive finish occurs on the medium body, seamless taste. My wife said "pretty damn smooth for a cabernet" and I agree. Excellent with dinner, this wine is a treat and definitely at its peak or slightly beyond.
The backstory: my friend Margaret inherited a cellar from her dad (and my friend) Larry, and I'm storing it in my passive cellar. When she received the wines she tried lots of it, and sadly had to pour out cases of wine that were over the hill. She thought this wine might be as well, but she gave me one to try. (Last night I tried a 1996 Domaine du Trevallon which was gone, gone, gone unfortunately.) If you have any of this I'd say drink up over the next year. Jim

Thanks for the note, Jav... er, Jim.

Good thread. I came across some whites in London but no room in my suitcase.

Thanks for the note, Jim. Properly stored, though, this wine can go a long time, at least based on a lovely 1986 poured for me by the guys at Terroir.

I have a 1981 of this (a birth year wine I picked up for like $15) that I pray is still alive. I doubt it, but it'll be a fun cork to pop on my next birthday.

I have a 1981 of this (a birth year wine I picked up for like $15) that I pray is still alive. I doubt it, but it'll be a fun cork to pop on my next birthday.

This was a very good wine ~20 years ago when I had a few bottles. Hopefully it still is. Would not be at all surpised.
Happy birthday in advance,
Charles

I've had a few of these over the years, and have I think 4 left in the cellar. There's no need to drink up over the next year in my opinion; mine are still showing good structure in the fruit and will develop further I think. It's mostly Cabernet IIRC and it ages well.

Chris, I looked at your website just now. I read that the `82 needs ten yrs or more!!

Hi Bob

You're right, I wrote "Aimé Guibert says this vintage needs decades more of bottle age, and on the basis of this tasting I'm not one to disagree.". That was more than seven years ago though (you can see the note is dated April 2002) so it would be great to revisit and see if Guibert is correct and whether or not I was right to agree with him. Sadly, I have no bottles in the cellar, only some of the 1992 and the 1996. Until recently I had six on the '96, then opened a bottle. Bottle #1 not right, quite dead, not like Mas de Daumas at all, so opened another, #2 was corked, so opened another, thankfully #3 was just as good as I hoped. So now I have three bottles left.