2009 Cahors Malbec Tasting “BLACK WINE”

At the latest tasting, we sampled not white wine, not red wine, but BLACK WINE! The “Black wine of Lot” as it’s known, or wines from the Cahors region in France. Here, they make ROBUST wines using mostly Malbec, with a little Tannat or Merlot thrown in to soften things up. If you like a deep intense color to your wine, you are going to love Cahors Malbecs. In the past these wine were on the “wild and wooly” side, but these days these wines are mildly oaked, have well integrated tannins and are very fruit forward, especially in the under $25 range.

Up until a couple of months ago, France didn’t allow the winemakers to put the grape varietal on the front of the label, only the region and/or the individual estate from where the wine was produced. So if you wanted a Malbec you had to know that Cahors was the region to look for, well needless to say France lost market share to every other Malbec producing region (Argentina for one).  The French finally  changed their laws governing the labeling of their wines and can now put the grape on the front label (just like the rest of the world’s winemakers). And guess what, French Malbec is affordable and tastes great.

My faves were the 100% Malbecs, but equally as good were the ones using a little Merlot to smooth things out a bit. The Australian Shiraz has pulled ahead of French Syrah, without much of a fight from the French, but France is fighting back on Malbec. There were some excellent wines available in the  $12 to $15 range.

So when drinking Cahors wine, bring a toothbrush, cuz this stuff had everyone smiling the smile of happy black teeth.