The American journalist and author (The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr and the Reign of American Taste) Elin McCoy spent a few days in Cahors tasting wines and meeting winemakers and producers. After almost a week in Cahors, she was impressed by the quality and the diversity of styles of the Cahors Malbecs.

Elin MacCoy will present the Cahors Malbec during our May 12 tasting in New York along with our Marketing Director, Jeremy Arnaud. Please feel free to register for this special event.

Like many American wine regions, Cahors is launching the First Malbec Half Marathon (site in French), on May 21 2009. The day is filled with a lot of fun, wine and food: attendees can choose to run (half marathon) or to walk along the chateaux and the vineyards. Walkers will be offered a cultural route while runners will speed off along the roads. All will enjoy great meals and beautiful wines! 

What French people call "South West" is the part of France from Bordeaux down to Collioure in the Pyrenées along the Spanish border. Cahors is included in this wide region along with Languedoc, Roussillon, Bergerac, Bordeaux and a few other appellations.

First of the top ten selected by the Dussert-Gerber guide for this region is 2005 Château Nozières: "You will appreciate like us this Cahors Château Nozières 2005 (80% Cot, 20% Merlot on ground argilo-limestone, breeding out of tanks stainless), of intense dress, with the persistent nose (morello cherry, violet), well-balanced, fleshy, with ripe tannins, rich color as out of matter, with the scents of cherry and humus, with a point of spices, mouthfull. Cahors Ambroise cuvée of Her 2005 is a success, all in nuances, robust, tasty, very well-balanced with the nose as in mouth (macerated fruits)."

A fascinating scientific study was recently published by an international team of researchers on the "Parentage of Merlot and related winegrape cultivars of southwestern France: discovery of the missing link" in the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology Review. Drs. J.M. Boursiquot,T. Lacombe, V. Laucou, S. Julliard, F.-X. Perrin, N. Lanier, D. Legrand, C. Meredith and P. This trace back to Merlot and Magdeleine Noire des Charentes, the "missing link", the origin of French Malbec, they called "Cot" in their article.

"Magdeleine Noire des Charentes also appears to be a parent of two additional cultivars: Mourtès, which is a cross with Penouille, and Cot (syn. Malbec), which is a cross with Prunelard, an old and endangered cultivar [...]." The researchers also noticed that "the different geographical origins of the progeny of Magdeleine Noire des Charentes suggest that this cultivar was once relatively spread across southwestern France."

Jim Martin, author of the wine section of castanet.net publication, wrote an interesting article on the history of Malbec in France and in Argentina. He recognized the quality of the Cahors Malbec wines and told the difficult history of Cahors. 

British wine writer Jane Anson spent two lovely days in Cahors driving around and tasting wines. She wrote about her experience in her blog and recommended two wines, Château Lagrezette and Château du Cèdre.