Wine Region: Cahors

(2024) 100% Malbec, this comes from the highest of the Cahors terraces, with the oldest alluvial soil before you reach the limestone plateau at the top of the slope. It was aged mostly in large vats, but with a proportion matured in smaller oak barrels. There's a real ripeness and supple gloss to this, defying the old idea of Cahors being tannic and rustic. Instead, here there is a swathe of crushed black berries and ripe plum, everything plush and sweet including the creamy tannins and pert cherry acidity. Balanced and easy to enjoy with its overall elegant and ripe appeal. Watch the video for more information and food matching ideas.

(2018) From winemaker Hervé Fabré, who has spent decades making Malbec in Argentina before buying this estate in Cahors, in his French homeland. It's a wine that has soaked up its oak barrel-ageing effortlessly, the nose dominated by blueberry and cassis, a dark black plum edge, and lovely notes of Malbec's more floral and feminine side too, elegant, peppery and gently lifted. Like its little brother, the Mission de Picpus, the super-fruity, peachy edge to the palate is delightful, here set against much more substantial tannins, darker, more savoury fruit, and good acid structure, suggesting this will age well for a decade or more.

(2018) It's an interesting 'back to his roots' story for French winemaker Hervé Fabre, synonymous with Malbec from Argentina where has made wine for over 30 years, including his well-known Viñalba label. He has recently taken over an estate in Cahors, the European home of Malbec, and the first two wines from it are now being stocked by the retailer Roberson, an excellent Cahors destined to age labeled Prieuré De Cénac, and this more approachable wine that retails for £5 less. It's a wine that expresses that lovely Malbec 'lift' very well, violet, cassis and even some fragrant peach notes, before a palate that carries through some of that peach juice-edged character in the crisp black fruit, grippy, but fine Cahors tannins and juicy and fresh acidity. Watch the video for more information and food-matching ideas. On offer at £11.99 at time of review.

(2014) Fruit comes from Vigoroux's own vineyards in Châteaux de Haute-Serre and Mercuès, the vines between 27 and 35 years of age. Haute-Serre sits on a plateau above the Lot Valley floor, with plentiful sun exposure. It has a rock-strewn surface with two feet of red clay and iron concretions over limestone and patches of blue clay. Mercuès is on the third terrace of the Lot, with sandy-clay soils which are poor and have excellent drainage. Lovely colour, very dense and flowing, bright violet/crimson. Very fine nose after 18 months in 50% new, 50% one-year old French oak barrels. Really nice aromatics, creamy and rounded but there's a herbal spice and leafiness, a touch of floral. On the palate the tannins are grippier and tighter than the Argentinean tannins, but it has a savoury, earthy character as well as the very sweet and ripe fruit. Delicious hints of violet and tight kirsch flavours, the purity of the fruit is excellent and it still has structure and acidity at its core.

(2013) Made from a selection of the best parcels of vineyard, all more than 30 years old and harvested with a very low yield. The wine is aged for 22 months in all-new French oak barrels. It is interesting approaching this wine knowing that I was looking for the Brett component, and I did find it - though nowhere near as pronounced as in my French tasting. There's just a touch of that elastoplast (band-aid) character in the background, a character that moves between cedary and savoury to lightly animal, but difficult to pin down. One thing is certain, the robust black fruit and sense of graphite is allowed to show more clearly. In the mouth this has the same delicious, juicy and sweet blackberry and plum fruit that I found first time round, with a stripe of liquorice and chicory firmness to the spicy, grippy tannins. It is just a touch short, the 15% alcohol also adding a bit of heat, but it has lots of substance and style. Overall, I still think this is an imperfect wine. Returning to it again and again in the glass over an hour my opinion flitted between definite Brett and something wild, tarry and gamey that was less easy to pinpoint. My final conclusion is that Brett is there, but for whatever reason it is not nearly so pronounced as the first bottle (maybe the bottle had been open much longer, or the wine came from a different barrel?). I enjoyed this much more and would score it

(2013) Very black colour, vibrant and youthful aromas too, kirsch notes adding a little lift. Some of that punchy, more vibrant black fruit comes through, nicely edged by dry tannin and fresh acidity, but a pleasing picture this.

(2013) Less clear aromatically, a slightly more muddied picture, the palate big and powerfully built: a certain four square character, quite meaty and dense, a big wine built for food.

(2013) Inky-black, glass staining stuff again. Inky nose too - seems to be about the quality of fruit and earthy terroir more than oak, but liquorice and sinewy. The purity and density of fruit is good, a real lip-smacking concentration here: kirsch-like edge of brightness and focus, the big, dry tannins and keen edge of acidity driving through. Big, dry and serious - maybe a touch too extracted?

(2013) Darker, meatier, but still with a good fruit concentration. There's a coolness and sense of minerality here too that is intriguing. The palate is dry and vinous, a big core of bittersweet plum skin and cherry skin biting freshness and sweetness, very firm tannins giving real grip and a taut, mineral-edged freshness. Serious and structured, more for the long haul.

(2013) Has an inky character on the nose, a touch of that dry, pastille and watercolour paintbox character, the fruit cherry-like and bright, the spicy oak subtle in the background. On the palate this bursts with juicy, youthful fruit, very nicely pitched against the acidity and tannins. This dries the mouth in the finish, but certainly needs some time and is very nicely balanced indeed.