Wine of the Week 10/08/19

Château Gaudou “Puro” Malbec
Regularly $15.99/On sale for $12.96

Gaudou is an ancient, 17th century château with massive beige walls, pierced by large windows and flanked by towers.  The vineyards, aged between 40 and 120 years old, are planted on southeast-facing gravel slopes for maximum exposure, with grass between the rows to force the vines to work harder.  The Durou family have been working this land since 1733, growing mostly Malbec (known locally as both Côt and Auxerrois), with some smaller crops of Tannat and Merlot. (The Cahors appellation is the only appellation in the French south-west to use neither Cabernet Sauvignon nor Cabernet Franc)  In those days, the wine was not bottled, but aged in cask and sent by barge to Bordeaux.

Current winemaker, Fabrice Durou has moved away from the bigger, more heavily-oaked styles towards wines that show a greater expression of the vintage and of the terroir, going for smaller yields and greater maturity in the grapes.  Part of that program is the “Puro” Malbec from the property’s youngest vines (40 year-old vines are not that young!) used to craft their most approachable version of the grape. No chemicals are used in the field; grapes are hand-harvested, and fermented with native yeasts in stainless-steel and cement tanks, then bottled unfined and slightly filtered with a drop of SO2 for stability.  Fresh, rich and complex for its price, this is one to stock up on for fall!