Wine trip in Cahors

 

We had this trip last week. This article come bit late, the time for us to digest the quantity of wine and food we had.

Cahors is a small appellation in south west of France with only 4000 hectares planted on the 20 000 available. The AC rules allows a minimum 70% malbec but all the best cuvee were 100% malbec. 

This grape variety is the king in this places.

According to a very specific terroir study, made by Claude Bourguignon we can find different type of terroir.

The valley, the terrace and the coteaux. Each terroir gives specific characteristics to the wine. The valley give strong wine, the terrace give more interesting wine more complex, the coteaux give for us the most interesting wine stunningly fresh and elegant for a malbec.

 

On the valley we tried the wine from Domaine Le Prince.  Their Best Cuvee Lou Prince is a highly concentrated 100% malbec aged 36 mouths in new oak barrels. The wine is brilliant dark, smooth. Well balanced. A decade cellaring will permit it to give is best.   

You can have this for 25 € ex cellar.

 

On the terrace we meet madam Baldes From Clos Triguedina, we had the chance to try the very best cuvee from the estate. The new Black wine comes from a 1,30 hectare plot, 100% Malbec, the wine making is very specific. A part of the grapes are cooked in a prune outdoor oven. We expect a jammy wine but not at all. The wine was  complex, black fruit, full bodied but really easy to drink. A must buy in the appellation.

Around 50€ ex cellars

 

  The last visit was Château Chambert. This 65 hectares estate is fully biodynamically run. Philippe Lejeune the ower early 40 ex IT is enthusiast, passionated it’s wine really looks like him : Happy. The coteaux terroir, reveals astonishing wines. To be honest if we had done this testing blindly, no one will guess a Cahors. The Chateau Chambert 2007 we tried was just perfect. Nice red fruit, wonderful acidity, tannin perfectly mature, present but not too much. 

A really good value for money for only 25 €. The Château it self is also wonderful.

 

Don’t forget this appellation, the quality is improving constantly, and today it still a very good value for money, price will growth. The people we meet there were really nice. We spend a amazing week end. 

Thank you Cahors...