The International Days showed how Argentina and Cahors can work together to promote this difficult but rewarding grape. Unfortunately, the message didn't reach everybody and we might read from time to time some unfortunate comments such as those published in the blog sourgrapes.com: "[...]the new threat to Cahors could be said to be Argentinian Malbec, which is getting better and better. Poor Cahors will never have it easy." On the contrary, Argentina and Cahors signed several partnerships and are working together on Malbec. Even more important, the historical background of the Malbec of Cahors will give its legitimacy to the more recent Argentinian Malbec while the success of the Argentinian wines will help Cahors grow its reputation on the international markets.

The International Days generated a renewed and now continuing interest on the Franch Malbec of Cahors. Two Sorbonne academics presented at our convention a study on the color black: is it legitimate to talk today of "black wine" for Cahors? Yes, was their answer: black is the color of Cahors because historically the wine of Cahors is recognized as the "black wine", because Argentinian wines illustrate their labels with tango dancers in black, because black is a consensual color uniting Cahors and Argentina.

If you read French, you'll enjoy this bright study on black and wine.

Black like in Cahors, red and white almost all over France, rosé from Provence, yellow from Jura - our wines are rich of so many colors, tastes, aromas and fragrances! This is the privilege of France!

In a few weeks, France will have an other color - at least on a label - purple. Alain Dominique Perrin, owner of Château Lagrezette, will launch a new brand, Pourpre, which means "Purple" in French. As all our Cahors wines, Pourpre will pair very well with red meat, cooked pork meats and cheese and will be available mostly in restaurants.

Why purple and not black? Is it because it was created to be drunk much younger than our black wines of Cahors? There is no explanation for this new label. You'll get your answer when drinking Pourpre!

Lately, blogs, news and forums buzzed about Malbec from Cahors. For English speakers, the word is not very easy to pronounce correctly. Even Alain-Dominique Perrin, one of the leading Cahors producers and President of the luxury Group Richemont, agreed it was difficult and that winemakers should talk about Malbec, instead of Cahors. The wineloverspage.com forum initiated a lively conversation about our International Days which started with a little discussion on the word "Cahors".

Other topic discussed in the press: the rising fame of Malbec in Cahors. Jennifer Chodzi Rosen discussed our wines in her article, "The Two Lives of Malbec" in the Passenger News. Others, maybe influenced by the famous movie, Sideways, called Malbec "the new Merlot"!

Our Argentinian guests of honor during the Malbec International Days are now back in their beautiful country. Their press is now publishing articles on the event and recognizes that Cahors is the historical capital of Malbec: “A la región de Cahors, que pertenece al departamento de Lot, ubicado sobre el puente histórico de Valentré y a 250 kilómetros de Burdeos, se la conoce como la cuna del Malbec. El viñedo de Cahors se ha plantado con Malbec por siglos y abarcan actualmente unas 3.700 hectáreas dentro de su zona de denominación (AOC) representando, más del 80% de la superficie dentro del área de AOC Cahors”.

Cahors wines, the famous black wines with a majority of Malbec grape, are the wines of the young and affluent consumers:

- 16% of the volume of Cahors wines purchased in France is bought by 35-year old consumers - the famous GenX - compared to an average of 8% for red AOC wines in general;
- these consumers are mostly located in Southwest, Paris and on the West Coast;
- 24% of AOC Cahors wines are bought by affluent households compared to an average of 18% for other red AOC wines.