Even more impressive, with more depth and richness on the palate but with the same aromatic fireworks, the 2007 Domaine Gauby Côtes du Roussillon Villages La Muntada is a blend of 45% Grenache, 45% very old vine Carignan, 5% Mourvèdre, and 5% Syrah that is aged for 30 months in a combination of cask and barrel. As with the Vieilles Vignes, this shows the essence of wild herbs, licorice, dried flowers, and licorice on the nose. Perfectly ripe red and black fruits come through more with air and this has a dense, layered core of fruit that just gets better and better over the evening, as well as on the second day. Full bodied and powerful on the palate, with ripe, sweet fruit, amazing freshness, perfect balance, and a decadent, yet light texture, this spectacular wine finishes with juicy fruit, awesome length, and serious structure. In short, a profound wine; buy as many of these as you can and drink over the next 15 to 20 years.

Gauby’s 2007 Cotes du Roussillon Villages Muntada – from 100 year-old, pre-phylloxera Carignan vines and 60-80 year old Grenache, plus a bit of Syrah, and tasted assembled from barrel – is almost dizzying in its aromatic diversity and strength. Shrubby herbs, licorice, tar, cedar, game, daffodil and marigold floral notes lead into a palate that improbably combines sheer viscosity and riveting intensity with invigorating brightness of fresh fruit and saline, crystalline, shimmering minerality. From its deep carnal, stony depth, through its multitude of herbs and berries, to the distillate-like intensity of its floral, salt-tinged top notes, this profound and exuberant wine is brilliantly scored for full orchestra and resonates long after swallowing. This opus – whose mysterious, savage beauty and luminosity brought to mind La Tache – will not be bottled until summer, but is sure to go down as one of Gauby’s greatest, and be worth following for at least the better part of two decades.
-David Schildknecht, The Wine Advocate

Gauby’s 2007 Cotes du Roussillon Villages Muntada – from 100 year-old, pre-phylloxera Carignan vines and 60-80 year old Grenache, plus a bit of Syrah, and tasted assembled from barrel – is almost dizzying in its aromatic diversity and strength. Shrubby herbs, licorice, tar, cedar, game, daffodil and marigold floral notes lead into a palate that improbably combines sheer viscosity and riveting intensity with invigorating brightness of fresh fruit and saline, crystalline, shimmering minerality. From its deep carnal, stony depth, through its multitude of herbs and berries, to the distillate-like intensity of its floral, salt-tinged top notes, this profound and exuberant wine is brilliantly scored for full orchestra and resonates long after swallowing. This opus – whose mysterious, savage beauty and luminosity brought to mind La Tache – will not be bottled until summer, but is sure to go down as one of Gauby’s greatest, and be worth following for at least the better part of two decades. Gerard Gauby (increasingly assisted by his son Lionel) continues – restlessly, experimentally, but with obvious focus – to pursue his rigorous biodynamic viticultural regimen as well as his stylistic ideals of elegance, refinement, distinctive minerality, and moderate alcohol, none of which – he demonstrates – are incompatible with ripe flavors and sheer density. (One stunningly floral and fruit-filled lot of 2008 Grenache destined for Muntada was harvested at a record-low 13.3% alcohol.) The key quality factor in stony, sun-drenched Roussillon, Gauby opines, is density of root structure sufficient to support steady vine metabolism, because shut-down or stop-start maturation under stress is what ultimately causes tannins to harden and pH and sugars to rise independently of maturation. Reds here from the last five vintages are more exciting then ever, if stylistically distinct from their more obviously robust and alcoholically-rich predecessors. Gauby has been the regional leader in white wines as well, which seem especially to benefit from the high-elevation and mixture of schistic and chalky soils around the town of Calc. A recently-acquired parcel of Grenache Gris vines planted in 1947 that he is “restoring” represents, says Gauby, the last such acreage available in his neighborhood. Propagation of cuttings will take a long time to mature to the point where they bear outstanding fruit, and he has enough old vines to keep him entirely busy and supplied. Apropos white grapes and young vines, Gauby is inter-planting Malvoisie with some of his red vines to achieve an effect similar to that conferred by the occasional blanc and gris vines that are a feature of Roussillon’s oldest remaining stands of Carignan and Grenache. Incidentally, there is an utterly alluring Gauby 2004 vendange tardive still in barrel, subtly oxidizing. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800.