A Lot to Know About Cahors
The River Lot starts as a spring in the Languedoc Roussillon region of south-central France. Flowing 500 km northwest, it eventually becomes a wide, meandering, slow river wending its way and eventually emptying into the Garonne River a hundred km south of Bordeaux. Looping like a dizzy python, it flows past imposing castles and diverse, hilly outcroppings of limestone that act as natural heat reservoirs. Nothing seems to disturb the tranquility of this serenely wild, sparsely populated region. The area west of Cahors for about fifty km on both sides of the river is the original home of the Malbec grape. The appellation is Cahors, taking its name after the medieval city of the same name. There are forty-five wine-growing villages in the Cahors appellation. Starting in the Middle Ages, and due to its intense color, it was called the “black wine.” It also found its way into the wines of other regions for the purpose of “beefing up” the colour and providing more weight on the palate. Cahors has 4,600 hectares of Malbec, miniscule compared to the 58,000 hectares grown there prior to being wiped out in the 1860s by that pesky, no-holds-barred, and totally destructive aphid called phylloxera. All along the banks of the River Lot one will encounter walnut and fruit trees. The vineyards are neatly planted on three alluvial terraces at various elevations above the river’s banks. An increasing number of Cahors producers are now including the Malbec varietal on the label. Merlot and Tannat are also grown here and are allowed to make up to thirty percent of the blend.
A great food wine, Cahors matches a cornucopia of regional delicacies including truffles, fois gras, grilled Caussnard lamb and black bass caught freshly out of the Lot river, and the regional cheese specialty, Rocamadour. Since we do not have the luxury of flying to France, have your neighborhood gourmet grocer help you select and substitute local equivalent dishes from its own repertoire of products.
French wine wizard and merchant extraordinaire, Gérard Betrand, has tapped into Cahors and is offering it to wine lovers around the world including, fortunately, LCBO Vintages. James Suckling scored it 90 points.
2021 Gérard Betrand Héritage Cahors Malbec LCBO #43536, $21.95.