Tag Archives: Languedoc

Wine of the week: Moulin de Gassac Guilhem White 2020

Moulin de Gassac Guilhem White 2020
Moulin de Gassac Guilhem White 2020/$9-$15

Add the Moulin de Gassac Guilhem white to the list of terrific cheap wines that I haven’t raved enough about

Call this mea culpa month on the blog, since I seem to be writing about wines I’ve always liked but never quite given the accolades they deserved. This week, it’s the $10 or so wines from a French producer, Moulin de Gassac.

I’ve written about the Gassac Guilhem red, white, and rose wines since 2014, but never really put them in any kind of perspective. Once, I even wrote they were from Gascony, when they’re from the Languedoc. So consider this review, for the Moulin de Gassac Guilhem White 2020 ($12, purchased, 12%) an acknowledgment that the wines are Hall of Fame quality and well worth buying.

The Gassac white is a blend that includes terret, which most of us have never heard of; the much unappreciated grenache blanc; and vementino, an Italian grape grown throughout southern France, where it’s sometimes known as rolle.

So no, this doesn’t taste like chardonnay.

Instead, it has some spice, some stone fruit, and a bit of tartness. I wouldn’t say it’s oily, which sometimes happens with grenache blanc wines, and it’s not crisp like sauvignon blanc. Instead, it’s full and almost rich (the winery’s tasting notes use the term fleshy, which seems accurate.)

Drink this with grilled or fried fish (catfish, maybe?). Highly recommended, and almost certain to enter the Hall of Fame next month. And don’t be surprised if it makes the short list for the 2022 Cheap Wine of the Year.

Imported by Beaune Imports

Wine of the week: P re Anselme Reserve De L’Aube 2011

pere anselmFlash back to the 1980s, to a time before California grocery store merlot, before livestock wines with cute labels, and even before U.S. wine was much appreciated in the U.S. What did we drink? Something more or less like the Pere Anselme ($8, purchased, 12.5%).

Those wines were notable for three things: They were French, because we were supposed to drink French wine in those days. They were cheap, because that’s all we could afford to drink (not yet having learned that cheap wine is worthy of a lifetime of drinking). And they were, to be kind, uneven in quality. Sometimes they were rough and tannic, other times green and unripe, and sometimes both. But what did we know? We were drinking French wine. In an era when women’s dresses had shoulder pads, that was pretty damned sophisticated.

The good news about the Anselm, a red blend with syrah and merlot from the Langeudoc in southern France and made by a leading producer of Rhone wines, is that it doesn’t have the technical flaws those older wines did. It’s ripe, it’s more or less in balance, and it even speaks to the terroir — some earthiness, simple black fruit, a hearty finish, and what the wine geeks like to call the smell of violets.

Serve this with any red meat; it does need food, another hallmark of those 1980s-style wines. The Anselm is not Hall of Fame quality, but it is the kind of wine you buy and drink and feel happy about. That’s not a bad recommendation for any wine, is it?