Our history

For nearly five decades, the Guibert family has watched over and tended to the vines with unfailing dedication.
The story began with Véronique and Aimé, our parents and continues today with the second generation at the helm.
To one day be followed by a third…

In May 2016, the founding father Aimé Guibert passed away.
But his wines live on. Here is a look back over a story that began in 1971 in the Gassac valley, near Aniane.

In 1971, ethnologist and Ireland specialist Véronique Guibert de la Vaissière and her husband Aimé, a tanner and glove manufacturer in Millau, fell in love with an old, abandoned farmhouse in the unspoilt rural setting of the Gassac valley near the ancient abbey of Aniane.

In 1972, on the recommendation of their Aveyron friend, Professor Henri Enjalbert, a geologist pecialising in the relationship between soils and grapes, they planted 17,000 non-cloned Cabernet-Sauvignon grafts sourced from top Bordeaux properties. An underground cellar was built on the site of the former Gallo-Roman watermill adjacent to the farmhouse, over the cold spring water from the river Gassac.

In 1978, oenologist Emile Peynaud, a consultant to Châteaux Margaux, Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut-Brion and La Lagune, followed progress at a distance and gave winemaking advice for the first vintage. Bottled in 1980 under the ‘Vin de Table’ label, the 1978 vintage was blended from 80% Cabernet-Sauvignon and 20% Malbec, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Pinot and Tannat. Using a technique unheard of that time in the region, half of the 17,866 bottles produced that year were offered for sale to family, friends and a handful of restaurateurs. The futures or en primeur system was thus born, and is still used today.

The 1982 vintage marked the first media endorsement of Mas de Daumas Gassac red wines, hailed by the magazine Gault&Millau as ‘Languedoc’s Château Lafite’. In 1986, white Mas de Daumas Gassac, a uniquely crafted wine showing huge aromatic complexity, made its debut. This consummate wine, designed to fully preserve fruit aromas, is primarily a blend of Viognier, Chardonnay, Petit Manseng and Chenin Blanc, fused with around fifteen other grape varieties from Old Europe which include Neherleschol from Israel, Khodorni from Lebanon and Tchila from Armenia.

In 1990, the arrival of rosé Frizant completed the estate’s range of wines, which even today still numbersthree – a red, a white and a rosé. In 1991, the Guilhem and Figaro labels made their debut, ushering in the Moulin de Gassac selection which currently totals 2.2 million bottles.

Since 2000, four of Véronique and Aimé Guibert’s five sons – Samuel, Gaël, Roman and Basile – have worked at the property and since 2009, these close-knit siblings have taken over estate management.