Moulin de Gassac

In 1971, ethnologist 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 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.