Château du Cèdre

Any delegation of Cahors winemakers invited to the imaginary opening ceremony of the Wine Olympics would certainly include the brothers Pascal and Jean-Marc Verhaeghe as flag bearers of the appellation. These are elite winemakers and ambassadors of both their region and the malbec grape. To put it succinctly, Château du Cèdre is the reference in Cahors.

Jean-Marc is more active among the vines and while Pascal plays a bigger role on the winemaking and commerce end of things. With their domaine-owned land, they produce three Cahors wines, all of which are specialties at the SAQ. The cuvée Château du Cèdre (formerly called “Prestige”) attempts to mellow the inherent angularity of most malbecs, without compromising the robust typicity of Cahors wines. Their cuvées Le Cedre’ and GC come from the finest terroirs in the appellation, soils with a similar composition to Burgundy, mainly limestone scree. The name GC (aka Grand Cru) is also evocative of the comparison, both in terms of terroir and winemaking style. (A burgundian Cahors? Yes, this is it!) After successively eliminating chemical weed control in 1992, and then, ten years after, doing away with all chemical fertilizers, they’ve been farming fully organically since 2009.

The Verhaeghe brothers also oversee a co-op that regroups vintners from across Cahors. Le Chatons du Cèdre, at all SAQ stores, is a brilliant example of this partnership’s achievements.