Mas de Daumas Gassac, Blanc, 2019

"28% Viognier, 23% Petit Manseng, 20% Chardonnay, 12% Chenin Blanc, 17% 'rare varieties'. From a cool microclimate in Larzac. Pale gold. Awkward, at first – needed lots of air. (To be honest, this wine needs lots more time…) So young and unformed, but very intense. This is fisted into a white-knuckled ball of concentration, still angular, but even so, it's a kaleidoscope of layers, flavours, components. The ripeness of golden Cape gooseberries and apricots pushes through clouds of May blossom and angelica flower. Grapefruit and passion fruit, bitter-salty quinine, linden and mimosa florals, honey, wax and lime. On the finish, cardamom and white pepper and chalk linger, dry and insistent. A wine that, even in its cocoon, has weight and presence. When I taste this wine, it feels like a heavy pewter spoon, tarnished into worn beauty, cold, pressed into warm wax, laid on bronze silk. Buy this wine, tuck it into a far corner of the cellar, come back to it in three, four, five years' time. (TC)"