Borgone, Cahors and Abruzzo

Ultimately it's hard to write ... soon accumulated this salad of wines...

2007, Louis Latour, Borgone Rouge, 13%

The basic wine from Louis Latour. Really basic... Red and greeness fruit, almost truti fruit, and a base of earth. In the mouth is delicate, and quite adstringent, high acidity and with secondary fermentation notes. With aeration keeps better. Easy wine, but don't expect to much.

2001, Cahors, Le paradis, 13,5% 14 mouth in new French oak

Aromas of cafe, red fruits, vanilla and candy. Also is quite present the earth and sois bois component, with a hint of yeast. In the mouth is balance, good integration with the wood and with easy tannins. Despite this flavorers sounds good, this is to me a wine who is trying to say: Hey Argentina, we can do malbecs better than you.... but this is sounds no good to me. There something in there that borrowed me. I would like more finesse.

2007, Sirio, Montepultiano de Abruzzo 13%

Aromas of black fruits, more serius, quite cooked and with hints of herbaceus aspect. The end reminds me acetate with cinamon. In the mouth is a medium boody, with lacking acidity and tannins. But in general is quite good for the price.


2004, Nicodemi, Montepultiano de Abruzzo 13%

Less complex than Sirio, and the nose is more cooked, and i dont like this. In the mouth it has a litle bit of residual sugar, but has good tannis. Drinkable.

2001, Cahors, Le paradis, 13,5% 14 mouth in new French oak

Aromas of cafe, red fruits, vanilla and candy. Also is quite present the earth and sois bois component, with a hint of yeast. In the mouth is balance, good integration with the wood and with easy tannins. Despite this flavorers sounds good, this is to me a wine who is trying to say: Hey Argentina, we can do malbecs better than you.... but this is sounds no good to me. There something in there that borrowed me. I would like more finesse.

I think I understand - it sound like they're trying too hard to be 'impressive' and thus the wine lacks either finesse, or even that old pleasing rustic nature of Cahors, where it had a few rough edges, but which time slowly rounded off.

We did mention the idea of tasting a few Cahors via the 'open mike' process here (where a few folk agree to open bottles from the same region over the course of a few days / couple of weeks). I picked up some half bottles of Ch Lamartine recently (basic bottling and Cuvee Particulaire I think), so have them set aside should we do this. Like the recent open mike on Dao, I think this could be very interesting, not least for the sometimes extreme stylistic differences in Cahors these days.

regards

Ian

Nice notes Marcelo! Nice pics, wish I could figure out how to do that.
Thanks, Agostino

We did mention the idea of tasting a few Cahors via the 'open mike' process here (where a few folk agree to open bottles from the same region over the course of a few days / couple of weeks).

Yup, up for that Ian. Maybe at the end of the month, what do you think?

2001, Cahors, Le paradis, 13,5% 14 mouth in new French oak
this is to me a wine who is trying to say: Hey Argentina, we can do malbecs better than you.... but this is sounds no good to me. There something in there that borrowed me. I would like more finesse.

There is a faction in Cahors that believes that commercial salvation lies in aping Argentine. I think that this is a mistake; first they don't have the reliable climate to do the style as well as Mendoza; second the genuine Cahors style is unique, arguably classier than Mendoza's, if less crowd pleasing.

This one is smothered in new oak which, of course, reduces typicity. There are, however, producers who use new oak and still manage to have the Cahors essence shining through in fine vintages like 2005 and/or after after appropriate ageing.

I'm rearing to go on the Cahors OM .

As far as I know, Ian and Tim have some great insights into Cahors. I wonder how many forumites here have ready access to Cahors so maybe in the upcoming Mike, posters might be allowed to taste a Malbec from Arg. to give us a different prospective??

Looks like my supply of Clos Triguedina has dried up here in Edmonton, pity.

Ian,
Your explanation is more clearly than my, is exactly that! The first thing that I note in the cahors was this few rough edges, and I like this... and I`m quite tired of Mendoza wines; here in Brazil we had an explosion of Argentina malbecs.

Tim,
Take a look in the web site that brigs this wine from Brazil.... http://www.vinsdefrance.com.br/... quite bizzars, but i will continue my serch, for sure Cahors is fundamental to me understand better the malbec world!

Alberta, about Open Mike, my grandpa just have 2 more bottles of Cahors... hehe, but for sure I you collaborate!

Agostino,
As soon as possible I can post a tutorial! thanks!