JANUARY 2025 - MAS DES CHIMÈRES

TO DREAM, TO DARE, TO ADAPT, TO CHANGE

We are thrilled to unveil our January wine club feature, an exclusive offering this month, as Mas des Chimères, a 21 hectare family estate in Languedoc, France.

At the helm is Guilhem Dardé who is accompanied in the daily workings by his partner Palma and their daughter Maguelone. They focus on traditional varietals to the area - Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre, in addition to some lesser known ones - Counoise, Cinsault and Ribeyrenc. They work with a laser-like focus and vision, both amongst vines and also in the cellar.

The wines are remarkably fresh and possess a certain magical quality in an era of overripe, alcohol-driven inebriants from the ever increasingly heated areas where grapes are grown throughout the world. They are worthy of immediate consumption but also contain an ability to age extremely well in the cellar. They are forthright and giving, with plush fruits and succinct acidity and structure. And as Guilhem puts it, “the most important thing for any wine is that it tastes good.” We couldn’t agree more!

Maguelone, Palma, and Guilhem, Palma, and Maguelone Dardé

Mas des Chimères is situated in the small village of Octon which borders the Salagou Lake some 50 kilometers from the Mediterranean in the Languedoc region of southern France. The soils here are quite ancient, some 250 million years old, dating back to the time when the first vertebrae were coming out of the water. They are composed mainly of compacted clay and very rich in iron, giving them the very deep red color they possess. Most of the Vin de Pays wines come from vines situated here. Further up the plateaux, where there is more basalt formed from previous volcanic activities, lies the AOC Terrasses du Larzac, where they produce fruit for their cuvée Nuit Grave.

The family estate was begun by Guilhem’s grandfather and worked in polyculture, more as a means to self sufficiency. Even though vines were present, the area itself was quite poor and, as with most farming families, they had to rely on their own land, to provide nourishment. At that time on the farm, there was a tiny amount of grape production that was vinified and bottled by his grandfather, mainly for consumption by the family and a few friends. But when his father took over, the farm was already planted strictly to monoculture. In 1943 the cave cooperative was formed, his father joined a year later and they no longer made any wine up until 1993. That is when Guilhem decided to stop selling fruit to the coop and to just farm, vinify, and bottle the wines independently.

Prior to 1993 Guilhem Dardé had meticulously tended to his family vineyards to then sell the fruit to the local cooperative which would then blend his grapes with the overproduced fruit of his neighbors into a general, commercially inexpensive table wine. For the first two decades working as a true paysan farmer in the Languedoc he did this. All the while Guilhem was self evaluating his work and the work professed by the cooperative. He noticed a vast difference of opinion. They were interested in purchasing inexpensive grapes and he was interested in his soils, his terroir, and the potential of other varietals, different from the ones the cave wished to work with. He had the foresight to envision something unique and with that, set out on his own.

The work in the vines is extremely difficult here, in a part of the Languedoc which is isolated and unlike the monoculture which exists elsewhere in the region. It is here that they coexist with the rest of the natural habitat and do everything by hand. The soils are particularly intense because of the hard volcanic rocks and its basaltic nature, making it impossible to work with machinery. They became certified organic in 2008, but this was never a real concern for them because it has always been a grassroots campaign since 1993, where their consumer base has originated from buying directly from them. They organize visits to the farm and welcome their prospective clients to see how they work, to taste and to ensure the satisfaction of their finished wines. Working the land in ‘biologique’ has always been the minimum for them, as they constantly search for answers in an ever changing climate wrought with differences from year to year, season to season. Wines are vinified with no additions in the cellar, except for a tiny amount of SO2 at bottling, when necessary. Of course, all ferments are carried out with native yeasts, which Guilhem believes is the only true revealer of terroir in wines.

‘Chimères Les Passantes’

[NV]

The newest wine in Chimères’s lineup! They combine multiple vintages for this cuvée made up mostly of the extremely rare varietal Ribeyrenc and Counoise. It is supple and buoyant, with delicate acidity providing the structural integrity. It is perfumed and floral on the nose with keen red lacquered fruit on the palate and remarkable length.

‘Oeillade’

Coteaux du Salagou [2023]

This is delicious Cinsault, lively and bouncy red fruits, dusty and profound aromatics with punchy length. It possesses this long, rich iron quality on the palate from the existing black basaltic rocks in the soil. The grapes are hand-harvested and destemmed before undergoing spontaneous fermentation in tank.

‘Nuit Grave’

Terrasses du Larzac [2021]

A blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre. Soil is deep red due to iron and oxide, with basalt blocks from volcanic eruptions. The varietals are harvested by hand and destemmed, then vinified separately in tanks before aging for 12 months in large old oak barrels. Loads of black fruits dominate the nose, it has incredible lift and acidity on the palate making way for a broad swath of red fruits. Roasted tones and salty tannins unveil mature and developed fruit with deep, rustic, leathery notes. This wine drinks beautifully, whether enjoyed young or laid down for 5-10 years!