More Cahors Wines in Seattle than in Toulouse?
Oh gosh! Where is Toulouse? It is the closest big city to Cahors in the South West of France on a line Bordeaux-Cahors-Toulouse. When you fly to Cahors, you land in Toulouse and you are about 1 hour away by car from our lovely city. You see, it is really close.
But the wine stores of Toulouse do not carry as many Cahors wines as the beautiful city of Seattle. If you are lucky enough to live in Seattle, go to Esquin wine store and pick some of their Cahors wines:
- Clos de Gamot Centenaire 2000 (52,99)
- Clos d’Un Jour, cuvée Un Jour sur Terre 2004 (28,99$)
- Château du Cèdre, cuvée Prestige 2005 (22,99$)
- Château Cayrou 2005 ($19,99$)
- Château Combal 2005 (17,99$)
- Domaine de la Berangeraie, cuvée Maurin 2006 (17,99$)
- Clos Coutale 2007 (16,99$)
- Château de Gaudou, cuvée Tradition 2007 (8,99$)
The customers have a rather large choice in styles, vintages (from 2000 to 2007) and prices from under $9 to over $50. Enjoy and let us know what you think. We’ll love to hear from you. Cheers!
When an Argentinian Restaurant features a Cahors Malbec
Lately a lot of comparative tastings between Cahors and Argentina Malbecs were organized. But it is the first time an Argentinian restaurant, Caminito Steackhouse, features a Cahors Malbec, Dom Brunet and actually likes it better than an Argentinian wine: Dom Brunet Cahors Malber “a modern style, small batch, French-grown Malbec, which happens to be produced by a friend of Caminito. This French wine retains the familiar flavors of Argentine Malbec, yet differs in that is it slightly softer and more subtle on the palate. Essence of plum, mild earthy, rustic tones, polished and well-rounded French style wine, sure to be a welcome addition to our wine list!”
Dom Brunet is the wine featured in September by Caminito Argentinia Steackhouse in Northanmpton, MA. If you’re in the area, stop by and enjoy the real taste of Argentina beef over a glass of Cahors Malbec.
The favorite Cahors Malbec of the World Best Sommelier 2010
Gerard Basset, the 2010 World Best Sommelier, published the list of his favorite wines in the prestigious World of Fine Wine magazine. Domaine de la Bérangeraie
Les Quatre Chambrées de La Bérangeraie 2008 is his favorite Malbec wine. Congratulations to Maurin Béranger, the wine maker.
Video: Journalist Anthony Rose on Cahors Malbec
British journalist Anthony Rose gave his general impressions on the Malbecs of Cahors while delivering the conclusion of the conference.
Videos of the International Malbec Days
The International Malbec Days ended two weeks ago but the buzz and the reactions on what happened are still going on.
If you want to have a good overview of the event, discover the video just released.
“The importance of French wine”
This is the title of a very provocative article by Brad Haskel in The Huffington Post. As Haskel reminds us, “A high compliment about an Australian Chardonnay, or a California Chardonnay was that it tasted Burgundian, or was made from clones of the best producing regions of Burgundy. A great Cabernet Sauvignon, or a red Bordeaux blend, may have other names, such as Meritage in the new world, but the best compliment is still to call it a great Bordeaux blend.” Is it still true now?
While traveling in California, I’m very often asked if such Chardonnay tastes like a Burgundy Chardonnay or if this Pinot Noir is as good as a Burgundy one. Sometimes, wine makers admit they travel to France to visit Burgundy and try to figure out what make their wines so different from their French countreparts. It is, at least, the position of the “terroir-ists”, either in the New World or in the Old World.
This is true also of Malbec. First grown in Cahors, it is still the emblematic grape of the area. When it was imported to Argentina, the grape evolved in a very different way, thanks to Nicolas Catena. According to David Kellaway, “what Nicolas Catena has contributed to the industry is a willingness to experiment with “microclimates” – the effect of altitude and local climatic conditions on grapes; moreover openly stating that climate is as much of an influence on a wine’s “terroir” as is the soil.” Catena put Malbec back on the wine scene and Cahors got bypassed by its younger child.
But the wheel is turning again. Wine makers, journalists and enologists are aware of the heritage coming from France. If “Chablis” is now a generic word in the US or in Australia, it’s not by chance: it is the homage paid by the New World to centuries of French know-how. Cahors is on its way to recover its own history and to remind the world that Malbec was born on its slopes and was for many centuries the favorite wine of the kings, emperors and popes. The recent International Malbec Days showed the multiple expressions of the Cahors Malbec – from round and fruity to complex and intense. It shows that French wine is still the benchmark of most wine expressions, whether it is from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec.
The Cahors Malbec Bottle
The new Cahors Malbec bottle was launched about 8 months ago. Its purpose was to advertise the connection between Malbec and its birthplace Cahors on international markets.
But as we, wine lovers all know, the content is also very important. The wine bottled under this special packaging answers several dratsic criteria: 75% Malbec and 25% Merlot, wine tasted and selected by a jury of the starred Cahors chefs, price between $15 and $25.
About 100,000 bottles from various estates and chateaux are already sold: among them, Château Croze de Py, Métaierie Grande du Théron, Château Saint-Sernin, Château Armandière and the properties of Alain Janicot.
The goal is to bottle about 400,000 bottles before the end of 2010. According to Jeremy Arnaud, Marketing Director of the UIVC and Gilles Boix in charge of the comercializtaion of the bottle, this is a realistic goal.
Blogging on the International Malbec Days
Since the end of the International Malbec Days held in Cahors at the end of May 2010, bloggers and journalists went home and started writing on the event. Some enjoyed it very much, like Ken Payton: he liked the vineyard so much that he proposed the Cahors professional body to write a book on the new generation of Cahors winemakers. Joe Roberts was a little more puzzled by the Cahors wines: he found some of them weird but honestly admitted it’s his own opinion we can challenge. We did and Joe is ready to come back to Cahors to taste more wines. Thanks to him for being such a good sport. Hoke Harden encountered some difficulties at the Toulouse airport he tells with humor but once in Cahors he went to work and shared his tasting notes on his blog.
Remy Charest came to Cahors with a precise mission: taste Le Pigeonnier 1999 of Château Lagrezette at the invitation of Jean Courtois, General Manager. The story behind the tasting is quite interesting. In an article published in The Palate Press, Remy expressed his dislike of the wine. Jean Courtoischallenged him to come to Lagrezette and taste blind Le Pigeonnier 1999 among other wines. Remy took M. Courtois up to his challenge and tasted Le Piegonnier blind among 8 wines from Argentina and from Château Lagrezette. Discover his “Verdict on Le Pigeonnier 1999″ and his notes on the other wines.
Carly Wray from Snooth.com was among the happy ones who went on a Montgolfiere ride over the Cahors vineyards and really enjoyed her stay as she stated in the snooth.com blog.
Finkus Bripp featured Carly Wray and Anthony Rose on his blog just before they took off in the montgolfiere in a funny video. And he loved Clos de Gamot.
Thanks to all of those writers who took the time to come to Cahors, taste the wines and write about them. We hope to see them soon again in Cahors – tasting truffles for example.
D 3 – Tasting of Cahors Malbecs
Saturday morning started by a 3-hour conference on Argentine and Cahors Malbecs, conducted by Jacques Puisais, vice-president of the “Institut du Goût” (Taste Institute), Ricardo Giodorou, President of Dolium in Argentine, Claude and Lydia Bourguignon, specialists of international terroirs, French journalist Michel Bettane and the American enologist Paul Hobbs.
After a quick lunch on the Valentré Bridge, we all jumped on a boat for a cruise on the Lot river between Cahors and Bouelle. Our tour guides were busy presenting the beautiful landscape in French, English, German and Chinese. During the cruise, we were served three wines : 2005, 1995 and 1985. Different from each other but all the best tetsimony of the incredible richness of aromas and flavours of Cahors Malbecs: the ripe red fuit of the 2005, the licorice of the 1995 and the mint of the 1985 were proof of a mellow ageing.
In Douelle, the boat cruised by the amazing fresco long of 120 meters and large of 6 meters painted by Didier Chamizo in 1992 and renovated in 2008, depicting the history of wine through biblical scenes.
We then moved on to Chateau de Cayx, property of Henryk, Prince of Denmark and spouse of the Queen of Denmark. His manager, Guillaume Bardin, took us on a long walk to the top of the vineyard: we had the most gorgeous view of the amazing vineyard propped on various levels. More surprising, there are 4 ha of Chardonnay vines planted in Cayx giving 18,000 bottles a year. The main wine is, of course, a Malbec, Le Château de Cayx, vinified in oak barrels and Les Marches de Cayx, not oaked.
While sitting on the terrace of the château, we were served the deliciously refreshing Chardonnay La Cigaralle and, of course, the “Cuvée Majesté”, a private cuvée (not commercialized) made specially for the 70th birthday of the Queen. After a day in the sun and the heat (over 100°F-about 38°C), this relaxing break was most welcome by everybody.
Time to head back to Cahors for a dinner at the La Chantrerie restaurant which is also the wine and food museum of the Lot region.
Highlight of Malbec Day 2 – A Tasting in Belaye
The International Malbec days are in full swing as all guests are safely sheltered in various hotels in Cahors and in the vineyards. The highlight of our day is a bus ride along the Lot river up to the view point of Belaye. Belaye is a medieval village overlooking a loop over the Lot River.
On the “buena vista” of Belaye there is a rest area where Anthony Rose conducted a very interesting tasting. We were seating around the picnic tables while Anthony bolddly stepped on a large stone to comment on the 10 wines selected by Cahors enologists Eric Filipiac and Mylene Doux:
- Clos de Gamot 2005
- Château de Haute-Serre, cuvée Giron-Dondine 2005
- Le Cèdre 2005
- Domaine La Bérangeraie 2008
- Château La Caminade, cuvée Esprit 2006
- Clos Triguedina 2006, cuvée Probus
- Château de Gaudou 2007
- Château de Mercuès 2007
- Château Lamartine 2007
- Château Chambert 2007
It was a very good and logical selection of wines: they were the various expressions of the different Cahors terroirs, lush, with lovely noses and, for most of them, a good ageing potential while drinking very well in their youth.
On our way back to Cahors, our tour guide, the charming Fabienne, took us on a little detour to the city of Puy l’Eveque, an other medieval city of the Lot region. In spite of the heat, we had a lovely day visiting the gorgeous country side of Cahors and tasting great wines.
