Hailing from the Loire and with skills honed under Marc Kent at Boekenhoustkloof, winemaker Vincent Chansault has been getting all the right notices since he started making wines at Domaine Gayda in the Languedoc. Chansault is a bold winemaker and is constantly pushing the envelope with exciting blends, techniques and a variety of ageing vessels. David Kermode talks to him about the estate’s various ranges, tastes through a wide selection of the new wines, and finds out why at Gayda he has the freedom to truly express himself as a winemaker.
“To sample the range is to savour the sheer diversity that the Languedoc Roussillon region presents, ponder its still-untapped potential, revel in the incredible value that it offers and celebrate what happens when commercial nous meets winemaking derring-do,” writes Kermode.
We all know of wineries that go back hundreds of years, sometimes longer. A family tomb here, some sepia portraits there, a pre-war tractor rusting in the shed…
Longevity is no guarantee of quality, of course, but it does at least inspire a degree of reverence. It’s much harder to create something from scratch that dares to be different, yet somehow conveys that same comforting sense of place, respectful of its history, but not afraid of it.
Domaine Gayda has done just that – from varietal wines with textbook typicity, to blends that bend convention and grapes that you might not expect to find so far south.
Nestling in the foothills of the Pyrenees, not far from the ancient citadel of Carcassonne, Gayda was established in 2003, when horticulturalist Tim Ford, business partner Anthony Record MBE and their winemaker Vincent Chansault decided the Languedoc was the perfect place to fulfil a plan they had dreamt up while working together in South Africa.
“The Languedoc is like heaven for a winemaker,” says Chansault, who hails from the Loire, “we have the soils, with granite, schist, limestone and sandstone, we have the weather and we also have some altitude.”
“I don’t care about appellation labels, I don’t want to be told how to make wine, with all those rules about how I should blend. It’s none of their business.” Vincent Chansault.
Chansault honed his skills at Franschoek’s Boekenhoutskloof under blending supremo Mark Kent, of ‘Chocolate Block’ fame, whom he describes as “a mentor” instilling in him “an absolute focus on quality, never compromising on your brand, nor your style”.
“When we started at Gayda, we planned to make 100,000 bottles and now we make over a million,” he says, “so next, we want to double the size of the winery.”
They will need the extra space, quite frankly, for Chansault is to fermenting vessels what Imelda Marcos was to shoes. With a burgeoning collection, including terracotta amphora, sandstone jars, polyethylene tanks, concrete eggs, steel vats and oak barrels in a multitude of sizes and ages, he has been able to push at the boundaries of blending.
“If I could have 50 different components, I would do it, because each vessel brings something,” he tells me, “it keeps me humble about winemaking, because it’s a reminder that I cannot control everything.”
Some of the many different ageing vessels at Gayda.
Something he does control is the use of sulphur, which is minimal. “We see that sulphur definitely has an impact on the taste of the wine”, he says, “so we try to use temperature control instead.” A new no-added-sulphites wine is in the pipeline.
With a restless, experimental approach, a passion for blending using his panoply of vessels and just a soupçon of Gallic insouciance, Chansault’s personality could easily have inspired the name for one of his best creations: Figure Libre or ‘Freestyle’.
“I don’t really care about appellation labels,” he says, with a shrug, “of course I care about the vineyards, but I don’t want to be told how to make wine, with all those rules about how I should blend. It’s none of their business.”
At a well-received press tasting in London two years ago, Chansault was able to showcase the effects of nine different fermenting vessels on the same batch of Syrah, blind-tasted by those present, revealing the often striking differences each could bring to a final blend.
Though Domaine Gayda produces more than 20 wines, only its top cuvée, ‘Villa Mon Rêve’, is classified as AOP (Minervois, La Livinière). Beneath this, the remainder – all IGP Pays D’Oc – encompass an eclectic, yet hugely compelling portfolio, from the classy ‘Chemin de Moscou’ to the experimental ‘Figure Libre’.
To sample the range – all of it vegan, the top end certified organic – is to savour the sheer diversity that the Languedoc Roussillon region presents, ponder its still-untapped potential, revel in the incredible value that it offers and celebrate what happens when commercial nous meets winemaking derring-do.
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