Sweet Malbec!
Pascal and Jean-Marie had been dreaming of making a top quality port-like wine for the last 10 years. Malbec Vintage is the result of this quest. Selecting grapes from three different vineyards by following their sensory profile – fruitiness-fragrant, spicy and mineral – they were separately processed. The point of interrupting this fermentation by adding high percentage alcohol again was determined by tasting. Subsequently, the wines were blended and aged in large barrels of 500 litres.
The result is a sweet wine with less than 100 gr/L of sugar and about 16% vol of alcohol, presenting full taste, underlined by the acidity of fresh fruits. Ideal to savour with chocolate, desserts, blue cheese, or with fine Belgian pralines.
Pascal and Jean-Marie had been dreaming of making a top quality port-like wine for the last 10 years. Malbec Vintage is the result of this quest. Selecting grapes from three different vineyards by following their sensory profile – fruitiness-fragrant, spicy and mineral – they were separately processed. The point of interrupting this fermentation by adding high percentage alcohol again was determined by tasting. Subsequently, the wines were blended and aged in large barrels of 500 litres.
The result is a sweet wine with less than 100 gr/L of sugar and about 16% vol of alcohol, presenting full taste, underlined by the acidity of fresh fruits. Ideal to savour with chocolate, desserts, blue cheese, or with fine Belgian pralines.
Pascal and Jean-Marc Verhaeghe form one of the most passionate, hard-working and skilled team of winegrowers we have ever come across. The work of Jean-Marc consists of growing, biodynamicaly close-to-perfect grapes in the vineyards, while Pascal meticulously transforms these grapes into arguably, the greatest Malbec wines to be found anywhere.
The 27-ha vineyard is planted on 3 parcels, the first consists of calcareous-clay soils, very stony on the surface, the other two are covered with rolled stones and the subsoils are made of layers of sands with trace of iron followed by silica and clay.
Numerous passages are made in the vineyard to ensure the perfect health, quality and ripeness of the grapes, and all the work is carried by hand as, since 1992, no chemicals have been used. The research of quality is pushed so far that almost each vine receives a special attention.
In the winery, Pascal vinifies the harvest in tanks and foudres, the wines are then matured in 225l or 500l barrels. The use of oak is carefully weighted, each vintage requires different actions, the aim is to produce Burgundy-type wines, that reflects both their terroir and their specific vintage.
Over the years, Pascal has made numerous trials and innovations in order to unleash the ultimate potential of Malbec grapes grown on the soils of Cahors, and the last few vintages have brought Château du Cedre up amongst the very best wineries of the World.
Decanter February 2012 ‘Top 10 French Estate for value’