The Humble Gourmand

Dear friends of the vine,

I am going to tell you about a superb Malbec based wine that does not come from Argentina. Then where could it come from, Venus? The third moon of Jupiter?

Well, no. It actually comes from a fairly important wine producing country: France. But as you know, the vast majority of French wines are labeled by location, not grape type. The region in question is called Cahors, a rather obscure viticultural town located 110 miles east of Bordeaux and 50 miles north of Toulouse - i.e., in the proverbial middle of nowhere.

One of the reasons for its obscurity is that the majority of Cahors are firm, tannic, uncompromising wines best served with strong game dishes on wintry days. You might be interested to know that Cahors was infamous in the Middle Ages for having bankers that charged interest on their loans. The church in these times said that using money as an end in itself was a sin. Because of this Cahors became synonymous with this sin, and was mentioned in Dante’s Inferno (XI.50) alongside Sodom as wicked. I always thought it was Sodom and Gomorrah but apparently it was really Sodom and Cahors!

So why I am I bothering to recommend a Cahors? Because I tasted one which caused me to jump out of my seat and to revise my assumptions about what a Cahors can be. The wine in question is the 2006 Chateau du Cedre. And you will not need to pay usurious interest on your credit cards to afford this compelling wine.

The estate has been run since 1988 by two Belgian brothers, Pascal and Jean-Marc Verhaeghe, both of whom worked with the brilliant maverick Jean-Marie Guffens in Burgundy and the Macon. Just as Guffens demonstrated many years ago how magnificent the Chardonnays planted in the right terroirs of the Macon can be, the Varhaeghe brothers have shown just what heights Malbec, tempered with just a little Merlot, can achieve in Cahors. Their motto is, “Learn to unlearn.” Almost all the truly great vignerons would ascribe to this profound ideal. Pascal and Jean-Marc learned to unlearn the traditional tendency to make tough, hard, inflexible wines from the region.

The 2006 possesses all the virtues and sensual appeal one would seek from a warm growing region with complex, multifarious soils: The bouquet immediately arrests one’s attention: Intense florality overlaying a confit of very dark fruits, cinnamon and sweet tobacco. On the palate the wine gives the impression of a puree of dark fruits, an impression of cloves and chocolate and a seductive generosity of texture. The tannins support the flavors and texture rather than overwhelming them.

2006 Chateau du Cedre Cahors

$24.75
Limited quantities - First come, first served
Please email Mary at ThoreauWineSociety dot com with desired quantities.

Bob
Thoreau Wine Society

1. Mark

   December 15 8:14 p.m. 1

   Nice post. It's interesting though how a French Malbec can differ in most cases from Malbec grown and produced in Argentina. Malbec planted in Argentina tends to be softer, less tannic-driven than the wines of Cahors. I'm a fan of both and would love to see and try more French ones. Unfortunately, there's not many of them to choice from on US retailers' shelves - at least in my neck of the woods.

2. Mark

   December 15 8:20 p.m. 2

   Clarification -make that choose not choice.

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