I have to admit that I don’t know a lot about these two French malbecs, except that they are outstanding quality. I heard about them a few months ago in Hong Kong when American enologist Paul Hobbs was in town to accept the JamesSuckling.com Wine of the Year 2014 award for his perfectly stunning, 100-point malbec Viña Cobos Malbec Perdriel Luján de Cuyo Cobos 2011. He received it in front of a standing ovation crowd of a few hundred during a dinner in China Club at the Wine & Dine Festival at the beginning of November.
But Paul piqued my interest when he said I should taste his pure malbec from Cahors. I have fond memories of Cahors. The dark reds remind me of lost days in Paris in the 1980s having Sunday lunches with friends in small bistros and popping corks on good wines from Southwest France. The wines were never super serious but ever-so-satisfying. They had a richness and decadence in a heart-of-the-earth sort of way. Cahors is mostly malbec but tannant can be included in the wines as well as cabernet. Anyway, I asked to taste Paul’s wines.
He makes them with Bertrand Vigouroux, whose family owns vineyards in Cahors and makes wine under numerous labels including Château Haut-Serre and Château de Mercuès. Paul has been a consulting enologist with the family since 2009.
I tasted two of Paul’s new Cahors malbecs. Both are sold under the Crocus label and both were from the 2011 vintage. One was in a heavier bottle and labeled “Gran Vin.” The other was in a simple bottle. They are both outstanding reds: regular bottling I rated 91 points and “gran vin” 93 points. Apparently the latter is a more severe selection of the best grapes from châteaux Haut-Serre and de Mercuès. It also is aged in 100 percent new wood for slightly more than a year compared to 50 percent in the regular bottling.
Both are expensive at $45 for the regular and $125 for the “gran vin.”
But these are wines I would love to buy. The reds of Cahors have wonderful pedigree and a real sense of place, but until now, most have not been in the same league as the best of the world. Who knows now? It’s exciting to see a new winemaker come to the region after making amazing malbecs in Argentina and give a good dose of fresh air and new ideas to the region.
