2000 Château Lagrezette Cahors Le Pigeonnier- France, Southwest France, Cahors (2/17/2019)
The comparisons to Bordeaux are not far off at this stage in the life of this wine. I really wish I had bought more of this. Opaque ruby at the core, there are scents of earth, faint bell pepper, cassis, dark chocolate, and aging oak notes that are no longer as intense or over-bearing as they were the last time I opened this. The palate is framed by med+ tannin, high acidity, and a range of blackberry, blueberry, and cacao that linger nicely along the finish. I’m so glad that I decided to wait for this. I imagine that if I had another 1 or 2 bottles I’d be tempted to wait another 5 & 10 years before opening them. Outstanding!!!
I’ll admit that Cahors and all the sister AOC is mostly an excuse to make garlicky Gascon food in our house. (vacuum packed duck confit lurking in my fridge now…)
Yes, this is the top of the mountain for this producer. The current release for this is about $129/bottle. I got this through a Cindy offer back when the site first started up for I think $65 which I would pay all day to have more of this.
Thanks for this note, I am glad to hear this wine turned into something worthwhile. I’m a huge Cahors enthusiast but have only tried Le Pigeonnier once, years ago, and it happened also to be the 2000. I bought the bottle on winebid for $40, which was a lot for me to spend at the time. I hated it! - the oak for me was just too much. I found my note:
11/26/2010 - This wine exemplifies everything that is wrong and offensive about international-style wines. This historic domaine was purchased in the early 1980s by the former CEO of Cartier, who brought his nouveau-riche sensibilities to the property and promptly enlisted Michel Rolland to oversee the wine-making. Accordingly, the wine consists of massively extracted, “physiologically ripe” black fruit, monstrous amounts of very expensive new oak – and not a shred of Cahors terroir anywhere to be found. Instead, there is only the undeniable and outsized imprint of Michel Rolland.
Reading that I have to laugh, pretty strident! Anyway, I am not sure if Rolland is still associated with Lagrézette. I’ve stayed away from the wines and prefer more classically styled domaines like Clos de Gamot, Combel la Serre, Cosse-Maisonneuve, even Château du Cèdre.
This seemed over the top with oak and ripeness for a while. I actually lost hope that it would ever become something I cared to drink. Now I’m very intrigued and happy to still have some.
This makes me wonder if some of the newfangled Bordeaux wines traditionalists hate might turn into something interesting too. Apparently some of the really modern Riojas do. This one seems to be a closer analogy.
If you only have 2 bottles then I’d wait and open one in another 5 years. There is no rush with this wine…it feels like it has another 20+ with good storage. Maybe there’s hope for those Italian Cab Francs too!