Recent wines from South-West France

From the past few months:

1995 Château Les Bouysses Cahors
Nice little winebid score! Though this is made by the local cooperative (Les Côtes d’Olt), which might call into question the wine’s quality, the terroir for this vineyard is excellent and many consider this to be the cooperative’s best cuvée. Most of the vineyard lies way above the Lot valley between the middle and upper terraces, where the best wines come from. The label on the back of this humble Cahors suggests at most 5 years of aging, but the wine today is in a great place. Was a bit reticent at first but an hour of air coaxes the wine into its full self. Medium-bodied dark purple-red with no bricking, highly aromatic with classic Cahors/Malbec cool purplish fruit, aged spice-cake notes, and a notable mineral presence. On the palate its essentially weightless with great flavor intensity until a light curtain of tannins dries out the finish. The fruit is clean, sweet, and fresh. Delicious!

2004 Château du Cèdre Cahors Le Cèdre
I was pretty impressed with a bottle of this a couple of years ago, and this latest one was even better. This domaine rather modern in outlook, using new barriques and all that, but their terroir is among the very best in Cahors and they seem to do a fine job bridging tradition and modernity. Decanted for about an hour before drinking. Still very early on in its life, the wine is muscular but lean, dark and inky and a bit chewy and austere (still tannic). A great match with cassoulet.

2004 Château Les Hauts d’Aglan Cahors Cuvée A
This higher-end cuvée (“A”) is 100% malbec from higher-elevation parcels, and is raised in tanks and foudres with no new oak (though apparently some microbullage, per the producer’s web site). It’s nearly black with purple rims and has a nice, highly lifted nose with floral and spice notes; the texture is sooth and downy with soft edges, mouthcoating and delicious.

2002 Domaine Laffont Madiran Cuvée Hecate
100% old vine Tannat aged in 100% new oak barriques. Well, it’s now 5 hours after pouring this in the decanter and there’s finally something to talk about other than an utterly forbidding and sour wall of oak tannins. Now the wine’s dark and savory, muscular, blackish fruit is breaking through, inflected with exotic cake spices etc. and enlivened with pebbly, wet-stone minerals and still lots of tannins. Nice! - but sheesh with all the oak. This really needs a hell of a lot more time in the cellar before being even remotely ready. I suppose in some way it’s admirable that a ‘small’ domaine like this would build a wine for such a long haul, but then again, why?

2010 Domaine de la Ramaye Gaillac Le Grand Tertre
Fabulous! 90% Prunelard, 10% Braucol. Dark, deep, so pure; needs over an hour in the decanter to express itself past the formidable tannins. Dense, sappy and delightful with great acidity, mint and other mild spice notes poking through. This is big and dense, somewhere between Cahors and Madiran in scale, and it seems to have been raised without new oak. Really a beauty that probably needs a number of years before it shows its best.

2010 Domaine Ilarria Irouléguy Sans Soufre
This is a thrilling new no-sulfur cuvee from a very good producer; indeed this domaine’s wines have improved steadily in the few years I have been drinking them. Cépage not indicated; probably a Tannat/Cab Franc blend. Flat out gorgeous Irouléguy, with just-crushed tiny red fruits, hot dry rocks, huge minerals, etc., with a silky elegance and astounding freshness. Just lovely. It reminded me of Loire Cab Franc wines, and I’d love to try it alongside the better Chinons and Bourgueils.

2009 Domaine Ilarria Irouléguy Cuvée Bixintxo
I’ve been wanting to try this cuvée for years, but no one imported it to the U.S. until recently (Charles Neal used to, maybe 10 years ago or so). This is Ilarria’s top wine; Chambers says it’s 60% Cabernet Franc, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 25% Tannat, but Charles Neal claims it’s 100% Tannat and aged in some new oak (20%). (Still another site claims 90% Tannat and 10% Cab Franc - ah who the hell knows.) It’s pretty great - but so, so young. It takes at least an hour before the nose opens up with sage-infused and spicy dark red fruit, and over the course of several hours it never quite freshens up all the way. This needs to be paired with cassoulet or some other big-time rich dish. I think for now I prefer the sans-soufre bottling and all its youthful intensity and freshness, but this may be the better wine down the road.

2011 Domaine Ilarria Irouléguy Rosé
Fantastic. Large-framed rosé that is darker than many red wines, with watermelon, tart cranberry, Cab Franc leafiness, hot rocks and huge salinity, with a hint of tannins on the finish.

Wow! Thanks for the TNs. I’m looking for these kind of wines to go with the cold and wet weather that we’re having. Available locally?

Hey Ramon,

The Ilarrias are (were?) available locally, at Chambers and Crush. I got the Les Hauts d’Aglan Cahors Cuvée A from Moore Bros, though they now appear to be out of it. I ordered the Ramaye Gaillac over the internet from an Oregon store, and the rest were winebid acquisitions.