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Les Roques de Cana, Cahors “Le Vin de Noces”

South West, France 2008 (750mL)
$30.00
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Earth
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Les Roques de Cana, Cahors “Le Vin de Noces”

Cahors is not only one of the most historically important wine appellations in all of France, it is the spiritual home of the Malbec grape. Situated along the Lot River in the southwest, a few hours inland from Bordeaux, Cahors had the market for powerful Malbec reds essentially cornered, only to have its thunder stolen by the dense, polished wines of Mendoza, Argentina.
Even before Mendoza Malbec came along, though, the “black wines of Cahors” had fallen out of fashion, but a growing legion of forward-thinking properties are trying to change that. Les Roques de Cana is one such estate, and what’s especially noteworthy about today’s 2008 “Le Vin de Noces” (besides the fact that it’s a 2008) is that it wasn’t “internationalized” in the hopes of finding a new audience. Rather than shoot for a sweeter, more extracted style aged in toasty new oak, they instead used no oak at all, aging the wine in concrete vats to showcase its soil-driven, black fruited character as transparently as possible. Aging in cement also helped tame Malbec’s notorious tannins—which can be further heightened by tannins from new oak—and with a decade of bottle age now under its belt, Le Vin de Noces is like a mature red Bordeaux crossed with a Bandol Rouge: powerful, refined, and a little wild. If there are more well-aged gems like this lurking around Cahors, trust me, I will find them—this one is not to be missed!
If my “Bordeaux-meets-Bandol” pitch seems a little far-fetched, consider that Cahors is almost the same distance from the Mediterranean Sea as it is from the Atlantic Ocean. Its microclimate is an amalgam of Atlantic and Mediterranean influences, making it hotter and drier than Bordeaux, while some of the most prized vineyards in the zone sit on a limestone/clay plateau like the one found in Saint-Émilion. The Lot River, which originates in France’s Massif Central, winds through the heart of Cahors and later meets up with Bordeaux’s Garonne; generations ago, plenty of Cahors Malbec was shipped downstream to help flesh out Bordeaux wines in weak vintages.

And while Malbec mostly disappeared from Bordeaux after the phylloxera epidemic of the late 1800s, the producers of Cahors doubled down on this inky, tannic variety. Les Roques de Cana was founded in 2003 by Martial Guiette, who has grown the property to 39 hectares of vineyards in and around the village of Saint-Vincent Rive d’Olt, just west of Cahors proper. The estate is located on the above-mentioned Plateau du Causse, at about 300 meters’ elevation.  Today’s 2008, aged about 16 months in concrete, has stood the test of time in bottle, which prompted Guiette to release some to his American importer.

In the glass, the 2008 Le Vin de Noces (“Wedding Wine”) has shed its youthful inkiness and now displays a pale purple core moving to garnet at the rim. Aromas of dried blackberries and currants are layered with scents of anise, damp tobacco, cedar, and mushrooms, carrying over to the medium-bodied palate. If I were tasting it blind, I think I’d lean toward mature red Bordeaux, but a hint of balsamic ripeness ties it to the Mediterranean. In addition to the tannins having been sanded down to a finer grain, the wine is also refreshingly free of any dirty, funky notes that often plague traditional Cahors wines. It is ready to drink now and over the next few years: Decant it about 15 minutes before serving (watching for sediment) and watch it evolve in a Bordeaux stem over the course of a meal. If you were drinking it in its place of origin, chances are it’d be paired with duck. The attached confit recipe is one I’ve shared before, but there’s a reason for that—it’s good and it works! Enjoy!
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Country
France
Region
South West
Sub-Region
FranceCahors
Soil
Clay/Limestone
Blend
Malbec 100%
Alcohol
14.0
OAK
None
TEMP.
60-65
Glassware
Bordeaux Stems
Drinking
Now
Decanting
15-30 Minutes (Sediment)
Pairing
Duck Confit

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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