Château du Cedre Cahors Juveniles 2021

Château du Cèdre is widely regarded as the leading estate in Cahors. Its history starts with Léon Verhaeghe, who left Flanders for south-west France in the early 1900s. His son Charles and Charles's wife Marie-Thérèse started a mixed farm in 1958 and began planting a hectare of vines in three different plots every year. Their sons Pascal and Jean-Marc, both qualified oenologists, built the reputation, and Jules Verhaeghe makes the wine today.

Twenty-seven hectares are farmed near Bru, at Vire-sur-Lot west of Cahors, most of it on the prime third and fourth terraces. Twenty-five hectares are red, 95 per cent Malbec with a little Merlot and Tannat, and two hectares are white: Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and a touch of Muscadelle. Yields are held to 30 hectolitres per hectare and the estate is certified organic.

Fruit is hand-picked and sorted in the vineyard, then de-stemmed and fermented on indigenous yeasts for up to thirty days on skins at no more than 28°C. No sulphur is used during the élevage, with only a tiny amount at bottling for some wines. Malolactic fermentation happens in barrel for the oak-aged cuvées, which spend twenty to twenty-four months mostly in large-format oak with only a small percentage new. Pascal Verhaeghe was the driving force behind the Cahors Quality Charter, and the estate has done as much as anyone to show what Malbec can do in its original home. About 9,000 dozen a year.