Rocking the ‘Cradle’….or should that be the ‘Cot’ ?

Here’s a thing. Deservedly so, Argentina’s Malbec is capturing the palate of those adventurous types seeking new ‘RED’ frontiers. Theirs are wines that are both soft, youthful, rounded, deeply intense purples or inky blood black age-worthy reds. Theirs are wines that are shining the light on a proven path to success for this red / black grape variety. Yet interestingly it still appears to be overlooked by many much closer to its homeland.

You see, much and all as the Argentines may well deserve the honour, Malbec isn’t infact native to South America.

Rather you’ve got to look to Southwest France. More precisely 230 km east-southeast of Bordeaux, in the new recently titled region of Midi Pyrénées where the locals of Malbec’s native cradle, CAHORS, know it by the name of Cot. How about that then!

Back up the truck, we’ve barely mentioned anything about Malbec and we’re already calling it Cot. No fear, let your spittoon’s rest easy. While Cot is its more correct title, we’re simply noting it for the record.

Malbec ‘is’ what we’re talking about here. The question about where it got this internationally recognised moniker is still anyone’s guess. From what we’ve read along the way it’s somehow wrapped up in a possible legend about a possible Hungarian whose surname may have been Malbec. Be that as it may, for now, let’s not get too hung up on why or indeed what it’s called !

Sufficiently intrigued by this thin skinned black grapes history and heritage (it’s related to Merlot!), we hit the road in search of its local roots.

While as yet we haven’t made it to CAHORS, along the road we did make it to a tasting of DOMAINE Mas Del Périé, featuring a selection of 5 Malbec’s from family winery and artisan vigneron, Fabien Jouves. His family have been rooted to the CAHORS townland for 5 generations, so let’s say we got close to the heart of the matter.

Fabien is a young bio-dynamic, biological grower and winemaker.

And while knowing a 70% grape content will earn the CAHORS Malbec AOC/AOP label, Jouves is one who, to his core, believes in honest, 100% mono-varietal wines. Wines that express both a grape variety’s identity as well as the vineyards terroir. An approach we naturally feel very much at home with. With 2007 being his first vintage at the controls, he explained how he’s still on the learning curve. Working and researching his 20ha of varying vineyard parcels to determine which are best suited to Malbec, means that Fabien produces 5 of them. Each one different to the other.

Malbec (Cot), while prone to frost and disease in poor vintages, is a vigourous grower in ideal years when life in the vineyard is rosey. It needs plenty of love and careful attention to ensure its tendency for high yields is avoided. Back in the winery Fabien’s vinification techniques are also many and varied. He says in this part of the world it’s a real job playing with the grapes tannins in order to achieve the finesse he’s searching for in the final wine.

This means using everything from cement tanks to amphorae to wooden barrels, both large and small, indigenous yeasts, batonnage and much more besides. Tireless experimentation all dedicated to CAHORS most important native.

The rider for our tasting included:

100% Malbec (Cot) Biodynamic
Fermentation and ageing in Cement Vats and barrique up to 6 months. Non filtered and bottled with minimum use of Sulphites. A natural version without sulphites is also bottled.

100% Malbec (Cot) Biodynamic
Fermentation and ageing in Amphore Vats with capacity of 100L up to 800L, for a period up to 6 months. Non filtered and bottled with minimum use of Sulphites. A natural version without sulphites is also bottled.

100% Malbec (Cot) Biodynamic
Fermentation is Cement Vats. Ageing and maturing in ‘Foudre’ large wooden barrels for +22 months. Non filtered and bottled with minimum use of Sulphites. A natural version without sulphites is also bottled.

100% Malbec (Cot) Biodynamic
Fermentation and Ageing in an Ovoide Vat (Clay / Cement) for +22 months. Non filtered and bottled with minimum use of Sulphites. A natural version without sulphites is also bottled.

To the eye, each of the wines offered that classic Malbec colour profile – deep dark inky wines with purple hues on the rim for the 2014’s (they are afterall young) but already graduating towards ruby on the 2012’s.

On the nose, yes, there are dark fruits, plums and berries, (+ a pleasant quirky note of rhubarb on the La Roque 2014). But most interestingly they’ve all got this kind of stoney minerality that we found appealing. This is a strong indication of where these wines are coming from.

On the palate, Jouves Malbec’s all display a fresh acidity, with both tannins and again that minerality at play. These are not what we’d call fruit driven Malbecs. Yes of course there’s fruit and light spice too entering with age. However, it’s the freshness and vibrancy of the wines that is marked. And with just an additional 2 years, the 2012’s are already displaying more complexity and elegance compared to the 2014’s. This is promising.

star performer

The 2012 Bloc B763 proved to be the most harmonic. Its rich, concentrated nose of dark fruit preserves and woodland, also threw forward resinous notes yielding to herbal, mint (almost menthol) and then balsamic throwbacks. This wines supple yet playful tannins quickly request another source to back up the first impressions, which do indeed persist. Worthy of an encore!

Yeah, we’d like to catch up with these wines again in another 2-3 years to check on their progress.

In the meantime, one principal difficulty remains for Jouves and the Cahors cohort. Unfortunately in France this variety, be it Malbec or Cot, is still not regarded as it was many moons ago. Indeed the French National vineyard for Malbec is smaller than ever and national interest, apart from in CAHORS, appears to be stalled. What a marked contrast to re-developments in Argentina.

That said, with Fabien Jouves all is still to play for. He is talented, courageous and firmly determined to turn that tide of French opinion. We’re going with The Undertones on this one. If Fabien can stay the course, one day soon there’s a seriously good chance… IT’S GONNA HAPPEN – for him, for CAHORS and for their native red grape, Malbec (Cot)…we’ll let you choose.

THE UNDERTONES – IT’S GONNA HAPPEN (vintage stuff)

CAHORS MALBEC