Château Haut-Monplaisir

As mentioned in our description of Château du Cèdre, the good-natured Pascal Verhaeghe plays a role advising other domaines in the region. For the past decade, Mr. Verhaeghe has guided the work of Château Haut-Monplaisir, from the vines to the cellar, which is undertaken with painstaking care by the owners Cathy and Daniel Fournié. The vineyard is located on the best terroir of the Cahors appellation, namely on the “troisieme terrasse” that the Lot River carved through Kimmeridgian limestone during the Mesozoic era.

The Fourniés’ updating of their family vineyard required immense efforts in order to bring it up to modern standards. Having completed that lengthy undertaking, they are now making wines that are paragons of the appellation. Wine guides are recognizing the high quality of Haut-Monplaisir’s Cahors. The 2012 Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France notes that “their entire range of wines reveals a pleasant homogeneity from the lower-end cuvées, which are serious and well-defined, to their fuller, more expansive prestige cuvées.”