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!

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.

If you want to have a good overview of the event, discover the video just released.

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.

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.

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.