Visit to Château du Cèdre (Cahors)

I just spent a very nice weekend in the Lot: city of Cawhores, Lot river valley, St. Cirq La Popie, and Rocamadour.

I only had time to visit one estate because much of the best wine country is far from Cahors itself where we were saying.
And I was with the missus...

We were welcomed by Pascal Verhaeghe (of Flemish origin), who spent 2 hours with us.

I always like visits that start with a look at the vineyards (alas, all too rare).

Le Cèdre has 27 hectares of vines divided into 3 parts. It is one of the stars of the appellation, and Jérémy Arnaud of the UIVC suggested I go here.

Pascal is nothing if not passionate about his wine, which he makes with his brother, Jean-Marc.
They also manage a 25-hectare estate, Ch. Monplaisir, which is just up the road, and a négociant business.

There are different soil types at Le Cèdre, but half of the vineyard is on a relatively steep slope with round stones (galets roulés) similar to Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

I am beginning to come around. I used to think that biodynamic and organic winegrowing was a gimmick. But when a winegrower such as Pascal explains the advantages, you begin to see that it's not just a come-on.

"Le Prestige," the entry level wine, is 90% Malbec and 10% Merlot. We tasted both from the 2008 vintage out of barrel.
The Malbec was inky-dark with tremendous fruit more reminiscent of a fine Northern Rhône. Lovely aromas/flavors of blueberry, blackberry, etc.
The Merlot was less fine, and when it is time to uproot the vines, they will be replaced with Malbec.

The next step up is called simply "Le Cèdre". This sees more new oak and has, as one might expect, more concentration. A real treat.

We didn't taste the top of the range (60+ euros a bottle), called simply GC, but I left with a bottle of the 2004 for my cellar.
Pascal was also kind enough to give me a bottle of his white wine (entitled to a "Vin de Pays du Lot" appellation) made from, of all things, 100% Viognier!

Pascal told me that vintages in Cahors can, on occasion, be very different from Bordeaux. This means that winegrowers can "jump on the bandwagon" when a vintage is so-so in Cahors, but reputed to be excellent in Bordeaux. Of course, it works the other way as well...

For travellers out that way, I can recommend 2 restaurants:
- Le Bellevue in Puy L'Evêque. Good food, very friendly staff, and an incredible view over the Lot Valley. We had a Ch. Famaey with lunch, and it turned out that the lone diner at the table next to us was the owner of the estate! He was also Belgian and we had an interesting talk.
- Chez Marco in La Magdelaine, just east of Cahors. While we didn't like the hotel part overly much, the restaurant is very good indeed and deserves its Michelin star. Wine prices were quite reasonable and the service was professional.

Best regards,
Alex R.

[Jenise]

Pascal told me that vintages in Cahors can, on occasion, be very different from Bordeaux. This means that winegrowers can "jump on the bandwagon" when a vintage is so-so in Cahors, but reputed to be excellent in Bordeaux. Of course, it works the other way as well...

What's the distance between the two? Haven't been to Cahors, but was thinking it was close enough to generalize....

[David M. Bueker]

Jenise,

Cahors is north of Toulouse. It's actually quite close to the place I visit on my business travels in Figeac. When I visit I always come home with free bottles of Cahors.

Cahors is 200 km east of Bordeaux and has a more continental climate, slightly drier with bigger temperature differences between night and day and between the seasons. Also it is mainly planted with the Malbec grape which has a slightly different maturation pattern from the predominant Cabernets and Merlot in Bordeaux. (Malbec used to be widely planted on the Bordeaux right bank but was largely abandoned after the 1956 frosts.) There are also very local factors such as thunder storms, deluges and hail, which can lead to big differences in quite small areas.

Already there are vintage differences between Bordeaux left and right banks, e.g. 1996 and 1998, and these are amplified by the time we get to Cahors. For example 2007 is considered a very good vintage in Cahors (lovely barrel samples this time last year) whilst it is only so/so for red Bordeaux.

Alex may have some more precise wisdom gleaned from his visit.

Thanks for the interesting report, Alex. I have had very good experiences with aged examples of their entry-level Cahors, available here in the US courtesy of Kermit Lynch imports. On a side note, we very much enjoyed our visit to Rocamadour. Not only is the setting amazing, but the black Madonna had significance to my wife, who is of Irish/Polish Catholic stock and grew up with images of the black Madonna of Częstochowa.

Mark Lipton

[David M. Bueker]

From a recent visit:

Rocamadour.JPG

[Jenise]

Gorgeous shot, David. Much more picturesque and romantic than I imagined.

[David M. Bueker]

It's romantic until you see the myriad gift shops juxtaposed against the pilgrims crawling up the steps on their knees.

But from far away it is quite lovely.