Malbec Heritage, Chateau du Cedre 2020

“If you think that Cahors is just brushing your teeth with tannin-flavoured twig juice, think again! Pascal Verhaeghe has been the driving force behind the Cahors “Quality Charter” and quality oozes from these wines. The estate was originally created by Charles Verhaeghe on vineyard land devastated by the frosts in 1956 in Viré-Sur-Lot. His sons Pascal and Jean-Marc duly studied winemaking, the former in Burgundy and California, the latter in Bordeaux. Ecological viticultural methods eschewing weedkillers and chemical fertilizers, yield reduction by serious pruning, leaf stripping for greater sun exposure and air circulation, harvesting the grapes on the verge of overripens yield the superb raw material essential to create fabulous wines. In the cellars the Verhaeghes aim for softness, richness and harmony through gentle extraction by long vattings and limited pigeage, malolactic fermentation and sensible use of oak. The Heritage du Cèdre is the Pugsley in this Addams menagerie. The family traits of abundant dark brooding fruit are evident; the heart is black but the flesh is youthful. Its lunchtime and you could murder a Cahors, but you don’t fancy taking out one of the big guns. Heritage is for you, a bonny ruby-red, the Malbec softened by plummy Merlot soothing to the gullet, a nice touch of lip-smacking acidity. It quacks duck magret to me.” From importer Les Caves de Pyrenne