Cahors: special wine touring report now available

Château du Cayrou

You can get my special Cahors wine touring supplement as part of a massive French wine e-magazine - as an Amazon eBook or an emailed PDF file with pics - featuring all three parts of my Malbec road trip (goes to summary of part 1)trilogy published on French Mediterranean Wine earlier this year, plus bonus winery profiles from this exciting region of southwest France. Yours for only £1.99 (GBP). Or subscribe to my blog for just £25 a year and get it free! Also includes other in-depth specials originally produced in a separate format, such as my detailed Saint Chinian wine touring report.

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Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 3 - Châteaux Haute-Serre, La Caminade, Armandière...

Cahors: special wine touring report now available

You can get my special Cahors wine touring supplement as a PDF file, featuring all three parts of my Malbec road-trip trilogy posted on French Mediterranean Wine earlier this year, plus bonus winery profiles from this exciting region of south-west France and the latest update added in Nov 2015. These special reports are not free2view and have also been combined into a massive e-magazine available to buy on as a Kindle eBook. Click on the title link above to find the PayPal buttons or link to Amazon!

Also starring a few choice wine picks and comments on 'the Perrin project' (not as mysterious as it might sound), La Bérangeraie, VinoValie/Les Bouysses, Clos Troteligotte and an update on previously 'profiled' organic estate LaCapelle Cabanac. Which all come together neatly to form the third and final part of my Cahors discovery tour from last autumn (alternative title perhaps: "Malbec III, the return home..."). To recap then, the story so far on...

Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part1 Château Les Croisille - Château Combel La Serre - Château Tour de Miraval.
Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 2 Châteaux du Cayrou, Famaey, Métairie Grande du Théron, Latuc.

1000 year-old olive tree (really!)
at Domaine de Landiech

Our first stop the following day was a picturesque (I took a few) wavy vineyard centred on a couple of spectacularly old olive trees and so-far not so pretty building site at Domaine de Landiech, where future plans for a landscaped winery and tourism operation are being put into place by Alain Dominique Perrin, owner of well-known Cahors estate Château Lagrézette. They planted 20 ha/50 acres of Malbec back in 2009 in one spot here along with cypress and olive trees (not the one above obviously), and are considering doing up the disused collection of old farm buildings on site to posh bed & breakfast accommodation. But the priority is to finish the new winery here, not much more than concrete platforms and pillars when I was there in October 2012, which is being constructed into the hill at the top end of the vineyard...

Get the full report to read on!

The Cahors Wine Producers' Association had the bright (bordering on radical) idea of relocating from a rather bleak old place opposite the station to the swinging heart of down-town Cahors, and must have spent a tidy sum refitting a lovely old building into the 'Cahors Malbec Lounge'. This groovy wine bar cum office space is obviously well stocked with local wines; and they run a variety of tastings to suit, from just turn up and taste (€5 for three wines in 20 minutes, three languages spoken) to a bookable one-hour mini-course (€15 six wines) or tailor-made evening events seating up to 44 people. This is a great idea and shopfront for their wines: more @ vindecahors.fr and travel tips at www.tourisme-cahors.fr. We met and tasted with a few more winemakers 'at the bar' here, these were my favourites (all Cahors)...

Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 2: Châteaux du Cayrou, Famaey, Métairie Grande du Théron, Latuc

Cahors: special wine touring report now available

You can get my special Cahors wine touring supplement as a PDF file, featuring all three parts of my Malbec road-trip trilogy posted on French Mediterranean Wine earlier this year, plus bonus winery profiles from this exciting region of south-west France and the latest update focusing on ten organic estates (Nov 2015). This has all now been condensed into a huge French wine e-magazine - all these special reports are not free2view. Click on the title link above to find the PayPal buttons or link to Amazon!

You'll find a snippet of "the first tantalizing instalment reporting from once-upon-a-time a little downtrodden but now groovy again Cahors, in deepest south-west France ("home of Malbec" as it likes to dub itself)." featuring these wine estates: Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 1, Château Les Croisille - Château Combel La Serre - Château Tour de Miraval. My further adventures of 'desperately seeking Malbec' in Cahors continue, rather belatedly, with a wine touring report of Château du Cayrou, Château Famaey, La Métairie Grande du Théron and Château Latuc. Plus another restaurant tip in the middle of lovely nowhere...

Château du Cayrou (meaning gravel or stone) is a handsome yet understated affair (pic.  above, I wouldn't want to guess how much his roof maintenance costs though) in that typically 17th Century French country estate style; not as grand and show-off-y as Bordeaux, more workmanlike than a regal old town mansion, but plenty of it all in big stone nevertheless. The backdrop to my Facebook page did also feature a (not bad) shot of a beautiful old chunky "150 to 200 year-old" cedar tree in front of a curious round-tower outbuilding, lying off this photo rotating right of the chateau. Anyway, you'll come across Cayrou near Puy-L'Evêque and the estate has been owned by Georges Douin for four years now. Incidentally, Georges has been converting over to organics since he took over, so 'official certification' will be appearing on their labels soon...

Get the full report to read on!

A taster of the final part of my Malbec-tastic Cahors trilogy features Haute-Serre, La Caminade, Armandière, La Capelle Cabanac, La Bérangeraie, Vino Valie, Clos Troteligotte and Les Bouysses, peppered with more wine travel tips including the 'Malbec Lounge' in pretty Cahors town itself...

Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 1, Château Les Croisille - Château Combel La Serre - Château Tour de Miraval

Hostellerie Le Vert

Cahors: special wine touring report now available

You can now get my special Cahors wine touring supplement as part of a massive PDF file, featuring all three parts of this Malbec road-trip trilogy posted on French Mediterranean Wine earlier this year, plus bonus winery profiles from this exciting region of south-west France (and any other recent in-depth French wine features produced in this format). Condensed into a neat mini-mag PDF and delivered by email for just £1.99 or as a downloadable Amazon eBook version: these specials are not free2view. Click on the title link above to find the PayPal buttons! UPDATED NOV. 2015: ten new organic wine estate profiles added.

This first tantalizing instalment reporting from once-upon-a-time a little downtrodden but now groovy again Cahors, in deepest southwest France ("home of Malbec" as it likes to dub itself, with a certain amount of justification...), features three dynamic estates: Château Les Croisille, Château Combel La Serre and Château Tour de Miraval. I met Germain Croisille and Julien Ilbert from the first two over dinner at Hotel Le Terminus (opposite Cahors town rail station) in their highly recommended restaurant Le Balandre (links to site), where we tasted, talked and ate well. And I encountered Evelyne Demeaux-Lévy (pic.) from Tour de Miraval the following day in similar circumstances 'across the table'...
Get the full report to read on - follow this link for more details and payment.

Watch out for my further adventures of 'desperately seeking Malbec' in Cahors; featuring Châteaux du Cayrou, Famaey, Métairie Grande du Théron, Latuc (links to Part 2); and in Part 3 here: Haute-Serre, La Caminade, Armandiere, La Capelle Cabanac, La Bérangeraie, Clos Troteligotte and Vino Valie/Les Bouysses among others. Plus more restaurant and wine travel tips...

France: the Southwest has moved...

Southwest France (Cahors, Madiran, Gascony & Armagnac, Bergerac etc.) has been teleported across to my other blog frenchmediterraneanwine.com (goes to SW archive page on that site) lock stock and barrels; and Bordeaux has now been too. Not very "Mediterranean" I know, but these wines, winemakers and wine-lands arguably have something in common with the broader South (sunshine? Doh.) than with genteel Bordeaux, although I've moved that region over there too to refocus everything French in one place (eventually)...

Southwest: Château Lacapelle Cabanac, Cahors

Updated Jan 2013 (see below).

I rather like Cahors and its Malbec based red wines, and I came across Château Lacapelle-Cabanac at this year's Millésime Bio organic wine show going back a few months. Owner-growers Philippe Vérax and Thierry Simon have been doing it organically since 2005, and their handsome 20 ha (50 acre) property is found in a microscopic village that shares the same name to the west of Cahors town. Their address is simply "le Château, Lacapelle-Cabanac..." Like that, shouldn't be too hard to find then. Their vineyards are planted on this area's distinctive chalky scrubland at 300 metres altitude (nearly 1000 feet), where there's also a bit of Merlot. More @ www.lacapelle-cabanac.com, where you'll find distributors in Europe, North America and Australia even.

2010 Tradition Cahors (80-20 Malbec-Merlot) - a touch reduced/baked on the nose, 'inky' and concentrated with meaty vs dark fruit combo, nice rounded tannins with rich vs crunchy vs peppery finish. Good in the end. €6.45 cellar door.
2007 Prestige Cahors (90-10 Malbec-Merlot, 14-18 months oak ageing) - toasty coconut notes and grainy texture, more concentrated though with grippy still structured mouth-feel vs developing savoury edges. Good+ €8.85.
2007 'Malbec XL' Cahors (100% Malbec, 2 years in oak) - showing lots of smoky bacon oak, rich extracted and concentrated palate; still surprisingly young and closed up, good but is that oak ever going to fully melt in? €13

UPDATE

I caught up with Philippe on a late autumn 2012 wine touring trip around the heart of Malbec country itself, at the 'Cahors Malbec Lounge', a groovy wine bar cum office for the producers' association in the town centre... Follow this links for tasters of my three-part report:

Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 1 Château Les Croisille - Château Combel La Serre - Château Tour de Miraval (contains links to these posts):

Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 2 - Châteaux du Cayrou, Famaey, Métairie Grande du Théron, Latuc.

Cahors: Malbec roadtrip part 3 - Châteaux Haute-Serre, La Caminade, Armandière...

Anyway, I (re)sampled these vintages of his three reds:

2011 Cahors (12.5%) - aromatic and crunchy red fruits, fresh and firm palate with nice elegant fruit, lighter style this vintage.

2007 Prestige - coconut overtones, rich and extracted, concentrated though with powerful grippy mouth-feel layered with maturing dark vs herby fruit; the oak has melted in a little, long firm finish.

2009 Malbec XL - dense dark colour, pretty coconut oaky vs rich ripe plum fruit with spicy herb edges, powerful and extracted with gripping structured palate, young and not very revealing; too much new oak though, he does like to extract! Try it again in a year or two... €14

Cahors: special wine touring report updated

November 2015 and September 2016.

You can now buy my special Cahors wine touring supplements as a huge French wine PDF magazine, featuring all three parts of my Malbec road trip trilogy originally posted on French Mediterranean Wine, plus bonus winery profiles from this exciting region of south-west France AND new profiles and notes on ten organic estates including Lacapelle-Cabanac's latest (added Nov. 2015). This is all now part of a bigger French e-magazine available as a PDF with lots of photos delivered by email OR as a Kindle e-book on Amazon - none of it is viewable on the blog. Click on the title link above to find that PayPal button or links to Amazon.

"Primeur" and "nouveau"... wine or chemistry experiment?

With Beaujolais Nouveau 2010 lurking ominously around the corner, and after recently reading some blatantly one-sided pro-wine business propaganda telling everyone to go out and buy a new "primeur wine" (French websites / magazines Terre des Vins and Vitisphere, just to get myself threatened with legal action...); I thought it might be worth asking if anyone else has found some of these wines virtually undrinkable? Admittedly, some are nice enough, such as the 2010 Colombelle white I tried recently by Producteurs Plaimont in Gascony: in a mega aromatic boiled-sweet bubble-gummy estery zingy zesty crisp fruity kind of way (although, at €4 to €4.50 in France, not exactly a bargain). But most of these autumn "new wines" I've tasted over the years just taste like a winemaking / chemistry experiment and don't come together at all like, well, wine. Unless you left them for six months, so what's the point?! Well, great cash flow for the producer for a start... sold and banked before Christmas of the same year. OK, so maybe I'll buy one red and one rosé primeur/nouveau 2010 vintage to substantiate my rantings. Watch this space, if I can be bothered...