Cahors & Argentina working together on Malbec
Posted on April 30th, 2008
Saved in Red wine, Sour Grapes recommends, Wine talk
In my first post on wine from Cahors, I wrote
“the new threat to Cahors could be said to be Argentinian Malbec, which is getting better and better. Poor Cahors will never have it easy”
A post on frenchmalbec.com disagreed, which they have every right to,
“Unfortunately, the message didn’t reach everybody and we might read from time to time some unfortunate comments such as those published in the blog sourgrapes.ie”
From an Irish consumer perspective, I stand by what I wrote. You can see it play out on the shelves of supermarkets and more specialised wine shops.
Malbec from Argentina is quite a bit cheaper, more widely available and easier to drink than most of those from Cahors.
That said, I’m a big fan of Cahors and I’ll seek them out.
French & Argentina working together on Malbec
Despite what I wrote, it’s great to see that France & Argentina are working together on Malbec. Rather than being a zero sum game with one winner and one loser, I think jointly promoting Malbec is a fantastic approach.
The last thing I want to see is a McDonalds/Starbucks-type homogeneity in wine, so I’m all for the joint promotion of Malbec, a grape that offers something different and something very special.
If you’re interested, intrigued or excited by Malbec, then I heartily recommend that you explore frenchmalbec.com, a really excellent site with plenty to read and explore about the enigmatic Malbec grape from Cahors.
Previous Cahors posts on sourgrapes.ie
Future Cahors posts on sourgrapes.ie
- Domaine Du Théron 2001
- Chateau du Cèdre 2004
- Chateau la Rose Rouge 2000
I do agree that Malbec from Argentina is softer on the palette than the French one. Said that, I mostly prefer French wines to any other…but that’s me and my old habits…Will have a look out for Cahors here in Cork.
Hi Elke,
if you’re in Cork, try Julian in Bubble Brothers for Cahors.
Lar
Will go to see Austin on Saturday. Will see what he got in stock at the market. Will let you how it went down. Have you tried CLOS TRIGUEDINA yet?
Hi Elke, have tried the Clos Triguedina. See previous post – I really liked it.
Hey Lar,
Cool, might go for it if Austin has it in stock tomorrow. Will let you know how I liked it. Enjoy your weekend
[...] a little late in ackowledging the post of our Irish friend, Lar, from sourgrapes.ie who posted a comment on Malbec of Cahors on his blog.Lar answered our post, Argentina and Cahors [...]
I started holidaying near Cahors a few years back and thought the wine was so so. Now, after a lot of practice I’m thoroughly convinced. The Cedre Heritage is very good for the price, equally, other entry level wines such as Clos de Gamot can develop great complexity with a few years of bottle age. Another absolute star is the Clos d’un Jour – their ordinary cuvee is around the €8 mark (in France at least) and is a big mouthful of dark chocolate, cream and black cherries. There are a lot of more up-market wines at €18-plus, generally 100pc malbec. These need five years plus, but are super with a well-aged piece of beef or with venison. A real undiscovered gem of a region (I must have 100 bottles stashed around the house)
Hi Felipe,
thanks for stopping by and for leaving the comment.
I like the Clos de Gamot and the Cedre.
The Théron is also a pretty good one too.