Wine region: France, Cahors

Wine should be drunk neat
In the morning, without
Water at mid-day, and in
The evening just as
The Good Lord gave it to us!
Old Aveyron proverb – quoted in Paul Strang’s Wines of South-West France

Cahors has enjoyed a long and complex history. Vines were originally introduced by the Romans, and when the river Lot was eventually adapted as a trading waterway, the reputation of Cahors became established all over the world. By the 14th century Cahors was being exported throughout Europe including England (where it earned the sobriquet of “The Black Cahors!”) and Russia; it was even considered superior to Bordeaux in France. Paul Strang quotes Monsieur Jullien in his book Wines of South-West France describing this strange black wine: “They make a point of baking a proportion of the grapes in the oven, or bringing to the boil the whole of the vintage before it is put into barrel for its natural fermentation… The first-mentioned process removes from the must quite a lot of the water content of the wines, and encourages a more active fermentation in which the colouring agents dissolve perfectly”. Tastes change… now one can find wines made by carbonic maceration. Pascal Verhaeghe from Chateau du Cèdre has just started using the micro-oxygenation technique (pioneered by Patrick Ducournau in Madiran) to create wines of great suppleness, whilst Jean-Luc Baldes has just created his version of the original black wine. By the way, an anagram of Cahors Auxerrois is “Ou! Six Rare Cahors!” Sometimes, as Voltaire said, the superfluous is very necessary.