SIX-PACK CASE PRICE = $17.99 per bottle (6 bottle minimum purchase)
(Discounts apply after adding the correct amount to the basket)
About This Wine:Coume del Mas was started by the Gard family in 2000. Originally an agricultural engineer, Philippe Gard set about finding wonderful old vines around Banyuls and Collioure to make fine wines. This potential was soon realised, and the wines are now exported to over 20 countries, with very positive press reviews and awards. Andy Cook joined 2 years ago. He helps out with vinification, sales English speaking and technology.
We currently have around 12 hectares of vineyards. Our vines fall into one of two categories. The first are old vines planted generations ago, which now have a deep root system and provide low yields of great quality fruit. The second are vines we have planted ourselves, and which we nurture to have a similarly long future.
The vineyards here are not mechanisable so work is done by hand. In some places, a horse can pass to plough the rows.
We use organic products wherever possible, and keep any treatments to an absolute minimum. Many of our parcels have natural balance and do not require treatment for mites, mildew and the like.
What Does It Taste Like?
We make a very small amount of Banyuls Blanc (which is , in general, a rare commodity). Made from Grenache Gris and Blanc, which is fortified mid-ferment, the wine is aged for 6 months in barriques to round out.
This wine has delicious coconut and toasted nut flavors, with citrus, grapefruit, peach and kiwi flavours. It is bursting with freshness and flavor and demands to be drunk!
Ratings & Reviews
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate ('07 vintage):"Candied lime, pineapple, honeysuckle, and heliotrope rise from the glass of Gard’s 2007 Banyuls Blanc. In the mouth, this offers creamy richness, ripe pineapple, vanilla, and persistent floral profusion, finishing with a pure, long, though quite candied impression.
Philippe and Nathalie Gard (with consultation from Claude Gros) are crafting extroverted and at times perhaps somewhat exaggerated wines from their terraced old vines. He came here a decade ago from the Auvergne, and soon began assembling the parcels that after 2004 would become Coume del Mas. The name comes from the steeply-walled interior valley stretching toward the Tour Madeloc peak, but Gard also has vineyards along the coast and others facing south. He recently started a second domaine, about which see under “Mas Christine." - David Schildknecht
(6/2009)
