Six grape varieties are allowed to make red wine designated Bordeaux: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Carménère. The last three are not household names, at least not in my cellar.
Malbec is successfully grown in Argentina and Chile but it is only since WW II that it has been widely planted in Cahors, close to where I am staying. Malbec had been grown in Cahors until the vines were killed by phylloxera in the 19th century and Georges Vigouroux, a good name for a wine maker, had to go to Argentina to learn how to handle this somewhat temperamental grape. He correctly assessed that the terroir (clay, limestone and iron) at his Cahors vineyards would suit Malbec and yesterday we drove to Château de Haute-Serre to see how it is grown and turned into wine.
First we had lunch in the restaurant. We had a bottle of their home-grown Chardonnay which we were told was made like Burgundy; I think it’s more like a white Rhône. Then we had a bottle of 2011 Malbec, from a vineyard across the road and I had a glass of 2015 Malbec from Ch de Haute-Serre. I’d been told that the food would be good but it exceeded even my raised expectation.
Malbec was known in England in the Middle Ages as black wine because of its dark colour. It seems to have a long shelf-life. The 2011 drank well but will keep for another decade at least. They are big wines that mature in new oak barrels. They are winter wines to decant and drink with lamb, wild boar, bean stews and the like. The 2011 doesn’t have those Gothic arches which wine buffs call legs but it does have a glorious dark velvet colour and an agreeable plummy flavour, free of tannin.
