Château La Poujade La Poujade AOC Cahors

Château La Poujade La Poujade AOC Cahors. Malbec, Merlot from Cahors, France. A wine made from the Malbec grape ( the Cot grape) with a little Merlot. A nose of black fruits like cassis and plums with nice vanilla notes. This rich, deep red oak-aged wine is as a fine Cahors should be. Almost black wine with firm yet nicely interwoven tannins.

Malbec: mainly grown in Bordeaux and south-west France. Characteristic of the wines from this grape is the intense and earthy fruit in the scent, combined with a soft, also earthy and spicy taste. The malbec shows a strong tendency to coulure, which results in a small harvest. Also called cot. In the Cahors wine region and Saint Emilion Pressac becomes the grape auxerrois named The birthplace of Malbec, like many other grapes, is in France. Here the grape is also called cot. What many people do not know is that the Malbec grape plays a (small) role in the world-famous Bordeaux blend. The Malbec grape variety was popular in the Bordeaux region at the end of the 19th century. During this period the grape was used extensively, almost as standard, in the best Bordeaux wines. But the Malbec is a sensitive grape that likes a dry and warm climate. It does not tolerate mold and cold well and it needs a long season to ripen. That is why you saw it less and less in the Bordeaux blend, although it can still be used. The world-famous red Bordeaux blend is mainly cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc with smaller portions of malbec and petit verdot. Because the grape is rich in tannins with low acidity, it contributes to the production of strong wines. Malbec is less common in Bordeaux, but is still very popular in the Cahors region. Here they also call the grape auxerrois or cot. There he delivers full, tannic wines. Merlot comes from the word merle, which is French for blackbird. Merlot is a classic grape variety used in Bordeaux wines in combination with cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. It was long regarded there as an inferior grape that lacked personality of its own and was used in the Médoc and Pessac-Léognan/Graves just to take the edge off cabernet. Where it did appear on its own and showed a surprising, full-bodied, ripe, lush personality with an inviting juiciness was in Saint-Émilion and Pomerol. Only when both wine regions stepped out of the shadow of their neighbours could merlot step out of cabernet’s shadow. Since then, it was successfully planted in California and later followed by just about every region of the world. Merlot is one of the king of grapes in Bordeaux but is also successfully grown in Languedoc further afield in France. It is also loved in California, Italy, Eastern Europe, Chile and even as far away as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.