Domaine Gourt de Mautens
Jerome Bressy
Rasteau (Rhone)

The Estate
Gourt de Mautens is a family owned winery located in Rasteau that started in 1996. In 1998, Jerome Bressy took over the 13 hectares of vineyard and for him it was a dream come true. Next the winery and the ageing cellar were built.
This is the insider’s wine of the Southern Rhone. Many winemakers in the Rhone Valley, Christophe Delorme (Domaine de la Mordoree) included, feel that Jerome Bressy will be making the best wines in the entire Southern Rhone Valley in the future.
Jerome chose the options of small yields (8-15 hectoliters/hectare) and organic farming (now controlled by Ecocert) along with the use of homeopathy, which he considers essential conditions for making a great wine. Since 1989 they have not used any chemical fertilizers or pesticides on the vines, so the soil can give what it has to give in the most natural way. The yields have always been lower than average because of his father’s concern about grape quality. The estate took another step forward in the organic farming by become biodynamic in 2007.
The Domaine produces an average of 2,000 cases each year, red and white wine, both of equal quality (not quantity), from small different plots in Rasteau. These are homogeneous wines as each plot is farmed with the same concern for perfection, regardless of any difference in quality among them. The goal being to be at nature’s service, stepping in the process only when necessary.

Jerome Bressy

The Vineyard
The vineyard measures 13 hectares (32 acres) and is made of several parcels planted on terraces, hillsides, banks and plateaux with a northwestern and southwestern sun exposure. The soils are made of clay and limestone marls.
Most of the vines are 45-90 years old, only 1/3rd of them is 5-30 years old. On some parcels different varieties can be found on the same row, just like it used to be in the ancient times.
Red : 70% Grenache ; 30% Carignan, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Counoise, Muscardin and Vaccarèse.
White : 45% Grenache blanc, 45% Bourboulenc, 10% various
Fortified wine (Vin doux naturel): 90% Grenache and 10% Carignan
Green harvest of the younger vines. A first selection is done in the parcels during the harvest (the grapes that are not selected are left on the ground). 

Rasteau Vineyards

Rasteau Vineyards

The Wines

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#F0EE510001GRL
UPC code: 7 84585 01017 2
2005 Gourt de Mautens, Rasteau, Cotes du Rhone Villages 12/750ml
Vinification: after the harvest, the grapes are carried in 20 kg cases; selection of every single cluster using a sorting table; Destemming.; Slow extraction in a 10-20 day maceration; All the grapes are blended together to produce a single wine, a single Cuvée.
Yield: 14 Hl/hectare
No addition of yeasts or tartar; No fining, no filtration.
Ageing: 12 months in demi-muids (300 liter barrels) and foudre (large barrels); then 18 months in concrete vats. A single bottling, at one time.
2005 harvest bottled in June 2008, i.e. 30 months of ageing. Production: about 20,000 bottles

2005 is a wine for long term cellaring and ageing. It is developing very slowly, at its own pace, because of the exceptional weather and all the work made in the vineyard that year. The wine was bottled later than usual, and aged for a while in the bottle to offer its full expression and complexity.
Beautiful black berry and black cherry fruits, liquorice and spice.

"The 2005 Rasteau is tannic, backward, and just massive. The wine needs 6-7 years of cellaring, and should age for 15-20 years as well. It is loaded with chocolate, black raspberries, and kirsch, intermixed with dusty, loamy soil notes, pepper, and the telltale chocolate that comes from the old vine Grenache that bakes in the sun in this high elevation appellation. This is a beauty, slightly rustic but enormously endowed. This is one of the sensational estates in Rasteau, with proprietor Jerome Bressy farming just over 20 acres of vines. Organic farming and the naturally low yields of his old vines (8-15 hectoliters per hectare) result in wines of extraordinary concentration and intensity. The general blend on his Rasteau is 70% Grenache and the rest Syrah, Mourvedre, and Carignan."
- Wine Advocate (Issue 175, Feb. 08), 92+ pts

National Retail Price: $72.95 / bottle

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UPC code: 7 84585 00138 5
2006 Gourt de Mautens, Rasteau, Cotes du Rhone Villages, Vin Doux Naturel 12/750ml
Cherries and black currants nose, very long and complex, rich and fleshy, with a perfect balance between sugar, alcohol and tannins. Perfect at the end of the meal with cheeses like Gorgonzola, or paired with strong and bitter chocolates.
Can be cellared for at least ten years.

National Retail Price: $72.95 / bottle