Description
Cahors “Les Cèdres” Château du Cèdre, Pascal Verhaeghe 2019
CHATEAU DU CEDRE, PASCAL VERHAEGHE, Cahors
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. 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 overripeness 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.
We also receive a healthy allocation of his remarkable top treacle-thick cuvée “Le Cèdre”, made from the oldest vines on the estate, “as cypress black as e’er was crow”, sweet, perfumed and plum-pruney. Decant and be awed. This is 100% Malbec from 30-40 year old vines and miserly yields of 30hl/ha. The recipe is exacting: a tri de vendange, destemming, a light pressing, vinification at 30-32 degrees with pigeage and a 40 day cuvaison followed by 100% malolactic fermentation in new oak barrels.
The wine is then aged for twenty months where it acquires its fabulous colour, almost impenetrably dark with glossy purple tints. With its thick cassis aromas and wild raspberry fruit
Grapes: 100% Malbec
Organic
