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Mas de Daumas Gassac

Having read numerous posts on a wine forum about this wine (in particular the 2000 vintage which I have been enjoying recently), I am curious to hear your views about it - no need to post if you don't want to.

The 2000 has good colour for a Cabernet-based wine, just beginning to show signs of maturity. The nose is quite Cabernet too (you'd hope so, given it's 80%) with a little extra sweetness to the black and blue berries (rather than currants) and mint with some hints of the forest. Altogether a decent variation on the Bordeaux theme, clearly a quality wine and one that can be enjoyed now (as I have been) or, being quite firm and tannic still, kept a few more years.

The 2001 was always an advanced wine although, as this was the first year they made the special "Emmanuel Peynaud" bottling, I have always wondered what impact this would have on the regular wine. Probably very little as quantities of the Peynaud were relatively small so, even though all the best grapes went into that, there was plenty of good wine left for the straight "Mas".

Anyway, a cork was pulled last night revealing another classic Daumas Gassac. Not a "wow" wine but very solid. Similar to the 2000 but, possibly, slightly more forward and with more orange peel on the nose and, I thought, gentler tannins. Bearing in mind my ambivalence towards much Bordeaux, this went down without any complaints.

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