The 42nd harvest report
The 42nd harvest at the Mas de Daumas Gassac began on Monday 2 September 2019! It lasted about two weeks and ended on Saturday 21 September with the picking of our star grape variety, Cabernet Sauvignon. This year we were lucky enough to have a team of 60 pickers, representing more than 16 different nationalities in the beautiful Gassac valley!
WEATHER CONDITIONS
The winter was mild from January to March, and so the first buds arrived fairly early.
The spring brought clement weather. The property’s vines developed at different paces: the whites early and the reds late. Overall, the spring was cool, which slowed the progression of flowering, so that the vines were two weeks later than in 2018.
The summer – flowering took place from late May to early June. One of the latest for the last ten years. The red grape varieties therefore ripened slowly, gradually reaching maturity. During July and August, day-time temperatures were high, while the nights were fairly cool. This
enabled us to harvest healthy, high-quality grapes!
HARVEST OF THE MAS DE DAUMAS GASSAC WHITE
We have an aristocratic, balanced vintage, sculpted with precision, in which the grape’s sun-soaked character is expressed in a magnificent density.
An excellent 2019, with good concentration that will enable the wine to continue evolving with power and vivacity for many years.
HARVEST OF THE MAS DE DAUMAS GASSAC RED
All of the red grape varieties planted on clay-limestone deposits and glacial sandstone successfully resisted the drought.
The strength of the 2019 vintage is the exceptional ripeness of the almost black grapes, which produced round tannins during extraction, promising good length and freshness on the palate.
Elegance and power!
From August to September, we constantly check the grapes’ ripeness. This represents 36 plots of white varieties and 48 plots of red varieties – approximately 40 rare, uncloned varieties to monitor!
“The 2019 vintage is defined by an unseen weather condition, with a peak in temperatures at the end of June reaching almost 50°C in the shade. This resulted in a reduction in yields of approximately 50% for the white grapes and 30% for the red grapes. An excellent vintage, but very small quantities!”
Roman Guibert
“The winegrower’s task is to know how to listen to what Mother Nature whispers to us…
When to pick the grapes, how to watch over each fermentation…
In the cellar, we have tasted each vat three or four times a day. What we have tasted so far has been a work of art!”
Basile Guibert
“On 7 June, the vine had just completed a second important stage: flowering.
It went superbly well. This gave us an initial indication of the harvest date, which looked like it would be later than usual.”
Samuel Guibert
The grapes’ degree of ripeness determines the order and date of the harvest of each variety in our collection of vines.
This first week of picking confirmed what we already knew: the heat wave that swept through the Languedoc on 28 June (reaching a temperature of 49.7°C in the Gassac valley) had an impact on the 2019 harvest, resulting in a significant decrease in production.
As in previous years, we paused for a little while before harvesting our star variety – Cabernet Sauvignon – in order to let the grapes fully ripen.
Photos Crédit Jarosław Praszkiewicz
