Michel Gassier Lou Coucardie Rouge

General Information

95 Points - Jeb Dunnuck

With encyclopedic knowledge of the wines and terroirs of the Rhône as well as his native Costières de Nîmes, Michel Gassier is a restless and innovative vigneron. Usually inquisitive personalities like Michel start as outsiders. Such is not the case with Michel, whose family has owned vineyards in the Costières de Nîmes for four generations. Together with his wife Tina, they are establishing a new level of quality for Costières de Nîmes without forsaking the uniqueness of their terroir.

Lou Courcardié is the champion bull of the Course Camarguaise, the ancient sport of man against bull practiced in the Costières de Nîmes and the Languedoc. Michel Gassier has elected to use this name as an homage to not only these magnificent beasts but his finest efforts in the vineyard and cellar. Lou Coucardié Rouge is 50% Mourvedre, a variety that Michel Gassier is championing in the Costières de Nîmes for its ability to produce elegant wines in even the ripest of vintages, with the remainder Grenache and Syrah. Deep and concentrated, it is seamless, balanced, and weightless on the palate, and shows why 2016 is such a great vintage in the southern Rhône Valley.