La Route du Vin: Clos Triguedina in Cahors

The Clos Triguedina Vineyards in Cahors

Cahors is one of the richest and and most flavorful wines you'll ever put in your mouth. Is there any wine better for a barbecue or a summer steak on the grill?

This is not a head-scratcher - NO is the answer. Just to clarify -- Cahors is not a new wine, far from it - the history of Cahors has as much length and richness as its taste.

The Lot River gets very curvy as it runs through Cahors. There are places where you feel like you're on an island because you can see the River running on both sides of you. Cahors is a very old wine town to the east of Bordeaux. Planted by the Romans, the people of Cahors were making wine when the Bordelais were still drinking beer. Their wines would float west to Bordeaux along the Lot River where the Bordelais would extract heavy taxes and sell them to markets in northern Europe.

In fact, half of the wines shipped out of Bordeaux in the 14th century were Cahors wines. The taxes extracted from those very same Cahors wines made it possible for the Bordelais to clear their marshy Medoc vineyards and develop their own winemaking business.

The most famous Cahors comes from Clos Triguedina. The name comes from the local saying, "Me trigo de dina" (in Oc, the region's ancient language). The Clos Triguedina domaine is medium sized at 57 hectares and the vines are planted on clay and limestone on some of the best grwing areas in Cahors.

Etienne Baldès planted Clos Triguedina in 1830. Today, Jean- Luc is the eighth generation to be in charge of the winery. He has completely modernized all aspects of the winery to keep up with all the latest winemaking techniques while maintaining the unique and delicious Cahors flavors and style.

The Domaine makes several cuvees Prince Probus which is a blend of 100% Malbec, Clos Triguedina and PETIT CLOS which is a stunning little charmer of 20% Merlot and 80% Malbec.

Note: The Wine Spectator just rated Clos Triguedina Prince Probus 2003 93 points.

A word about the Malbec grape. Malbec has become popular recently as the principle grape of Argentine wines. Cahors is the source of Malbec and at Clos Triguedina Malbec reaches its full delicious potential.

I was sitting in Paris around the dining room table and looking at an uncracked bottle of Clos Triguedina and little brother, Le Petit Clos . I knew I was going to fall hard for Prince Probus. I had tasted it several times over the past few years while talking to Etienne about importing a small quantity of his wines. I was looking forward to its beguiling roundness, that rich red and black fruit and aging like a Bordeaux in some new French oak (and I did).

But Petit Clos was new to me. Sometimes the little wines just don't get enough of the good vineyard stuff and can do not fully reflect the quality of their more famous big brothers. NOT SO with Le Petit Clos. I couldn't believe that first sip and then continued to be amazed. Petit Clos was no head-scratcher. It was an instant buy. Beautiful, full flavored, concentrated 100% ready to drink.

So what do you say? Discover something new? Who knows where it may lead. Cynthia Hurley

The Details:

Domaine Clos Triguedina Le Petit Clos 2003 12 bottle case $197.88 ($16.49)

Domaine Clos Triguedina Prince Probus 2003 6 bottles $299, 12 bottle case $575.88 ($47.99) Very limited only 4 cases.

Mixed case $299. 9 bottles of Le Petit Clos to drink now and 3 bottles of Prince Probus for the cellar.

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