Mas de Daumas Gassac Moulin de Gassac Pinot Noir 2021

This is the perfect example of what you can find if you get far enough off the beaten path. Here’s a ridiculously priced, single-vineyard, organic, more-than-mature Pinot grown in Cote d’Or like soils (that have been nicknamed the Grand Crus of the Midi for fourteen bucks a bottle. Just hit the buy button.

The historic Mas de Daumas Gassac was founded in 1974 by Aimé & Véronique Guibert. The estate was littered with hectare-sized patches of fields. Each had been previously planted to various crops and were the exact size a that a horse and plow could work in a day. It also naturally fostered biodiversity.

A soil scientist from the University of Bordeaux tested the glacial limestone soils (akin to those in the Cote d’Or) and convinced them to plant grapes.The Guiberts embraced the practices of the previous farm and became the very first estate in the Languedoc to adopt full organic farming; despite the vines age, they’ve never seen a chemical.