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France

Chateau Jean Pierre Gaussen Longue Garde 2004, A.O.C. Bandol.  **HERITAGE WINE**


Color:
very deep, red, nearly black, with just the beginning of some browning in the rim.

Nose:  quite expressive, intense, with great mineral, ripe and juicy fruit, balsamic nuances, cedar, spices, pepper, compact and deep, with refinement, complexity, classy in style with great breed and  length, very impressive, excellent balance, still hidden potential.
Taste: very strong, compact and powerful, with scintillating intensity, with sweet spices, fruit, minerals, hefty tannins, impressions of tobacco, cedar, smoke, asphalt, some alcohol and a touch of cacoa, but also an impressively broad and sweet mid-palate leading to a complex, classy expression of the terroir, excellent balance, very impressive wine.
Finish: very long, very intense, loaded with sweet fruit, spices, minerals, multi layered, the spicy tannins are beautifully absorbed by the intense fruit and minerals, lots of nuances, excellent balance and impressive.

* Taste this wine and you will learn why Bandol has such a huge reputation: this is a opaque, very intense, strong and powerful wine, bursting with fruit, minerals, balsamic nuances, strong tannins and a very convincing rich and very dense mid-palate, all in excellent harmony combined with depth, complexity, class, breed and even refinement, a truly great wine and a great expression of its terroir! Great value for money too!


- Showing very well now, will improve until ca. 2010, may continue to perform well until 2015 or even later (difficult to assess, please taste regularly).

 
- This wine comes from one of the most classical and reputed terroirs of France: Bandol. Here the Mourvèdre grape is king. This black grape is renown for its huge level of unforgiving tannins, it ripens late and needs to suffer a whole hot summer in a good vineyard to yield a good wine. The grapes that went into Ch. J.P. Gaussen Longue Garde obviously suffered a lot. They were transformed in a very impressive hefty wine in which fruit is the key element.
In contrast to another great producer (in terms of style and quality) Ch. Pradeaux the "Gaussen" is very modern in style, the "Pradeaux" is one of the most classical examples from Bandol and even from France. Both are unique wines, the Pradeaux having the edge of refinement and originality, the Gaussen excelling in richness of mid palate and density of mineral fruit.
Fed up with the reputed, expensive too often overpriced Bordeaux or Burgundy? Try this wine for a change, you might not like the heftiness of the wine, but if you do you will be hooked for life I am afraid.

There are some good Bandols around, all of them expensive,  too often I find Bandols lacking concentration in the middle palate, to many tannins "on the outside" or periphery of the wine, especially the classical versions, some modern wines are good, but most of them lack the greatness and the potential complexity and elegance of  Ch. Pradeaux or the richness and complexity of Ch. Gaussen.

 
- lotnr.: L 604
- tasted: 06-05-’08
- estimated retail price ca. € 24,=
- production: not indicated

- Chateau Jean Pierre Gaussen, Mme Mireille Gaussen, 1585, Chemin de l’Argile, quartier Noblesse  83740 La Cadière-d’Azur, tel.:  + 33-494 98 75 54 , fax.: + 33-494 98 65 34, export agent: Maison Duret Jones
Thierry Pommet, 960 Route du Faron, 83200 Toulon,  
tel.: + 33- 490 88 14 58 ; mobile: + 33-662603375  ;  e-mail: thierrypommet@club-internet.fr