Ah, the Malbec grape! In Argentina, Malbec forms the basis of a rich, ripe wine with flavors of sun-warmed plum and a velvety texture. In its hometown of Cahors in southwest France, Malbec can take on hundreds of guises, from tender and fruity to feisty and powerful to intense and complex.
Today at New York’s Astor Center I enjoyed a rare treat in that I was able to sample the three main “types” or “quality levels” of Cahors (in France, it is typical to order a wine by naming the AOC, instead of the varietal) in a tutored tasting led by author, columnist, and wine expert Elin McCoy. I had met Elin several times before yet I was particularly impressed by the way she orchestrated the tasting and her poetic choice of words about the wine and the region. As she spoke, gorgeous pictures of the region and the cuisine of the city of Cahors flashed across a sleek monitor above.
Before the talk the audience – an assembly of people from the trade and journalists – heard Alain Janicot, Co-President of the Cahors wine negociants, speak about the history of the region through a colorful translation courtesy of fellow Wine Media Guild member Peter Hellman. Cahors became an AOC in 1971, with its wine having achieved worldwide fame in the Middle Ages as the “Black Wine” of Cahor. I have never found the wine to be particularly “black” – it is somewhat of a violet-ruby color when young – so perhaps the “black” refers to the typically strong, sometimes astringent tannins or its often masculine nature.
In any event, with Elin’s poetic words and the gorgeous scenery I was curious to start tasting the wine arranged before me, which represented the three basic categories of Cahors. Inexpensive (under $12) wine is tender and fruity, the medium range (under $21) is described as fiery and powerful, and the more expensive category is described as intense and complex.
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