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All tasting notes
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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 87.9 pts. and median of 88 pts. in 23 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by gestep on 7/5/2019: Pretty darn good QPR (1711 views) | | | Tasted by battytaxicab on 6/12/2018 & rated 90 points: Dark purple, ruby colour. Rich, velvety berries taste but firm enough to give good finish. Very enjoyable, especially for the price and hope to find some more. (2231 views) | | | Tasted by eboracum on 2/26/2018 & rated 89 points: Robustly tasty and virile, very similar to the bottle on which I wrote a TN about a year ago but perhaps better integrated with more raspberry in the fruit. Great QPR at c.7€ and hopefully there is some still left at the store. (2596 views) | | | Tasted by khmark7 on 2/21/2018 & rated 87 points: Mild aromatics with a cool styled fresh tasting cedar & cranberries. Very drinkable in an old world style. Better suited for pheasant than the salmon i am having for dinner. (2379 views) | | | Tasted by InFrom/HF on 12/31/2017 & rated 86 points: It's been open a couple of hours. Dark fruity nose, a bit of barnyard on the palate but delicious. Light tannins. (2481 views) | | | Tasted by studleytrey on 11/27/2017 & rated 87 points: Picked up a half bottle for $9 to try out for those lunchtime moments, and with the wife preggers again, these come in handy over the short term. Purplish ruby color with some transparency. Aromas of soil, wet slate, green pepper, dusty cherry and darker fruits, and some root vegetables like beets and radishes; maybe a little celery too. Medium body, medium(+) acid, medium finish, and flavors of black cherry, plum, lemon and orange peel, radish, Earl grey tea, and oak spice. Minimally grippy tannins that are providing a little structure, but not in the way of enjoyment—this seems more drink now than later to me. Worked well with meatloaf leftovers. 86-87 (2210 views) | | | Tasted by Ardross on 11/17/2017 & rated 89 points: Gouleyant as always anyone looking for a heavy black wine is missing the point . Cahors comes in different styles and this is fresh and a super sausage and mash wine (1501 views) | | | Tasted by whits on 8/1/2017 & rated 89 points: shy on the nose with hints of bark, cherry and earth, dry, has a freshness that is propelled by juiciness, bursting with black cherry, blackberry, baked raspberry, herb and plum, this is a nice match with braised shortribs (2156 views) | | | Tasted by Chemming on 5/7/2017 & rated 86 points: Perfect everyday wine. Easy to drink with anything. Not too fruity or jammy, nice smoky undertones and dry finish. (2357 views) | | | Tasted by vino vidi vici on 2/11/2017: Sweet powdery sugar confection. Fun, but is this what Cahors is supposed to taste like? I suspect it's an old world wine trying to play to the new world... Won't open another one for quite some time. I was really hoping it would be earthy... (2690 views) | | | Tasted by Woodbridge Brad on 2/2/2017 & rated 87 points: Very clean and bright color and lovely fruit nose. Complex with hints of smoke and tobacco beyond the fruit, lovely. (2233 views) | | | Tasted by WineCenturyAZ on 1/31/2017 & rated 85 points: Transparent ruby purple, earthy nose that is a bit hot at first, dry and earthy palate with blackberry, wet herbs, hint of a barnyard funk on a medium finish. Not bad just not a style of Malbec we enjoy. Where's the round juicy fruit? (2299 views) | | | Tasted by FourthZ on 1/22/2017 & rated 88 points: A beautiful dark, inky wine with some earth and dark fruit flavors. A good value. (1480 views) | | | Tasted by eboracum on 1/5/2017 & rated 89 points: I still marvel at being able not only to drink but, more important, to enjoy a two year old Cahors. It would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. Colour more transparent and not quite so black as some. Nose typically Cahors but hard to describe, perhaps a mix of savoury bright black fruit, earth, wet leather and olives with a touch of anise and liquorice. Palate medium+ bodied, virile and sinewy, replaying the aromas from the nose with an underlying roundness of fruit which no doubt owes something to 15% Merlot in the blend with fresh acidity and firm backbone. Good wine and stunning QPR at €7. (1477 views) | | | Tasted by TedStriker on 6/30/2016: Light fruitiness on the nose. Dry, earthy wine with medium tannins and hints of tea leaves and oak. Pairs well with a nice cheddar and green grapes. Great value for under $15. (1552 views) | | | Tasted by RajivAyyangar on 3/7/2016 & rated 86 points: Monday Night Blinds (Home (Noe st)): (non-blind - I brought this)
m- ruby purple to a magenta rim (light color!)
malbec fruit - dirty weedy blackberry and rotting orange slices/orange peel. Reminds me of the Achaval Ferrer. Is this varietal Malbec?
Stemmy herbaceousness. Slight manure/barnyard.
med + body
med + alcohol (actually 13.5%)
med + acid
med + tannins - chocolatey and rustic and papery in nature.
slight bitter dark chocolate on the finish- neutral oak.
Decent! Relatively clean.
Damp earth and forest floor.
pretty good. (1708 views) |
| Clos La Coutale Producer website
However, the U.S. Importer's pg, https://www.kermitlynch.com/our-wines/clos-la-coutale/ , may well contain more pertinent info -- including an update of the below.
Modern techniques but respecting traditional methods. All the grapes are destalked and pressed before fermentation in stainless steel vats, each grape variety from different parts of the vineyard being fermented separately. Maceration at 28º C. takes 15 days. The wines are fermented for three weeks on the skins, and the property has sufficient tank space to ferment 100% of their harvest at once. After racking from stainless steel, half of the wine goes into 60-gallon Seguin-Moreau barrels,while the balance is aged in 800-gallon foudre. The wine is blended and time spent (12 months) in oak vats gives it the special aromas of vanilla and silky tannins. The wine is bottled, unfiltered, after a year in wood. The blend is 70% Malbec (known locally as Cot), the traditional grape of the region, blended with 15% Merlot which gives finesse and bouquet, 15% Tannat which gives it its aging potential. Yields average 40-45 hl/ha (about 2.5 - tons/acre.)
Tasting notes
For decades Kermit Lynch has worked with Coutale, currently managed by a very cool Philippe Bernède, who don’t consider “prodigious concentration” and “sledgehammer on the palate” positive reviews. Philippe has reduced the proportion of Tannat in the blend over the years, preferring a wine with more balance and immediate pleasure, so the blend is now predominantly Malbec (with a touch of, gasp, Merlot - is that still a cuss word?). The 2006 is a particularly sexy vintage for Philippe, with very ripe, silky tannins and a perfumed finish. Don’t let the “feminine for Cahors” bit trip you, though. This is a deeply hued wine with a big, round palate and plenty of meaty tannin. It just happens to be even more versatile at table than usual.
Malbec BlendCordiscoFrance Vins de France (Office National Interprofessionnel des Vins ) | Pages Vins, Directory of French Winegrowers | French Wine (Wikipedia)
Wine Scholar Guild vintage ratings
2018 vintage: "marked by a wet spring, a superb summer and a good harvest"
2019 vintage reports
2021: "From a general standpoint, whether for white, rosé or red wines, 2021 is a year marked by quality in the Rhône Valley Vineyards. Structured, elegant, fresh and fruity will be the main keywords for this new vintage."
2022 harvest: idealwine.info | wine-searcher.comSouthwest France Comité Interprofessionnel des Vins du Sud Ouest | Les vins du Tarn-et-Garonne on-lineCahors Le Vins de Cahors (L’Union Interprofessionnelle du Vin de Cahors)
The Cahors appellation is located in the département of Lot, which itself lies in the greater region known as Quercy. Sandwiched between the Dordogne and Toulouse, the rolling hills of the area that twist gently along with the River Lot provides the visitor with a fairy tale view around each bend; villages topping the peaks of small hills, blue sky and vine-covered expanses, castles tucked neatly into hillside folds or hanging precariously on the rim of a cliff...it's not surprising that this area attracts huge numbers of tourists and foreigners looking to buy retirement homes abroad! The Cahors vineyards date back to the Roman occupation, making them among the oldest in France.
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Cahors is a small town in southwestern France, located 100 miles (160km) east of Bordeaux. In wine terms it is known for its deeply colored reds made predominantly from Malbec (known locally as both Côt and Auxerrois), with small quantities of Tannat and Merlot. Interestingly, Cahors is the only red-wine appellation in the French south-west to use neither Cabernet Sauvignon nor Cabernet Franc. Malbec typically ripens midway through the growing season and produces small, intensely colored grapes. As it is so sensitive to its growing environment, the level of ripeness has a considerable effect on the structure of the eventual wine. Broadly speaking, French Malbec tends to be more meaty, rustic and tannic. Malbec wines are generally aged in oak to enhance the wine's structure and aging potential. |
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