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 roadtrip trilogy posted on French Mediterranean Wine earlier this year, plus bonus winery profiles from this exciting region of southwest France (and any of my other recent in-depth features produced in this format). Yours condensed into a neat 17 page mini-mag PDF delivered by email, either when you subscribe to both my blogs for just £10 (about $16 or €12) a year, or buy it for £2.50 on its own - these specials are not free2view. Click on the title link above to find the PayPal buttons!

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 (click there)... 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 FMW.com...

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. Thus they will be making the wine here in two to three years time, although the vineyard will already be producing by then which "may or may not become part of the Lagrezette range." There'll also be a tasting room and shop with a viewing gallery on top, looking down over neat rows of vines running down and up and down and up again over hypnotically rolling hillocks. The vineyard is divided up into what they call "12 mini terroirs based on soil types, and we planted adapted rootstocks and clones (slightly different 'versions' of Malbec actually but still all Malbec DNA) in each plot... and we're already happy with the results..."
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)...
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