French Malbec - International Malbec Days

April 4, 5 and 6, 2008 - Malbec Days in Cahors

nospam@example.com (Evelyne Lejeune) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:23:00 +0200

The International Event

For three days, Cahors became the capital of Malbec. Producers from the Cahors area and from Argentina presented their wines on the historical bridge of Cahors. Authors and VIP from France and Argentina spoke about Malbec.

Technical information on the wines

The event was a resounding success and we will publish more articles about it here soon. For technical information on the wines presented, please see this page.

Back from Cahors - Three Days about Malbec

nospam@example.com (Evelyne Lejeune) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:25:41 +0200

This weekend, starting Friday evening, Cahors was the world capital of Malbec. Wine makers, producers, marketers and experts gathered in Cahors for 3 days of exchanges, talks, tastings and fun.

Inaugural celebration

Friday night, Cahors officials welcomed their guests in the beautiful Cahors "lounge" - a space decorated as a lounge wine bar near the gorgeous Valentré bridge whose 700th anniversary happens to be this same year. Along the walls of the big room, several of the best Cahors, Touraine and Argentina producers offered their wines for tasting. Their wines graced the food catered by the best chefs of the region: cappuccino of mushrooms, lamb, duck, foie gras were among the delicacies offered as well as great chocolate and meringue desserts - whose flavors exploded against the spiciness of Malbec. Orchestras and DJs entertained the happy crowd until late in the evening.

International conference

Saturday morning, everybody was back to work at 8:30 am for the international conference on "Malbec, grape of the 21st century", as Robert Parker named it. Several speakers shared the podium: Nicolas Vivas made a very clear presentation of the chemical components of the Malbec grape. During the panel discussion that followed his speech, journalists, wine makers and experts from France and Argentina commented on the quality of the Malbec grape, its development in the world, how to market it and its image. Cristina Pandolfi gave us - in an impressive French - a great overview of the wine industry and the place of Malbec in this industry in Argentina. She was followed by Yohann Castaing, wine consultant in Bordeaux, who dug on the Internet all the mentions of words on Malbec. His analysis based on data mining showed that:

- the Malbec grape is easy to market, tasted as frutiy and spicy, answers the tastes of the younger consumers and is trendy, is considered a qualitative grape.

- the image of the producing ares are good: the image of Argentine is based on a good QPR, on trends and business but is still a little blurred in the consumer's mind; the image of Cahors rests on the "black wine" tradition, its famous terroir and its high quality.

- the consumer has difficulty differentiating Malbec, Cahors and Argentina; the Malbec has a good image by itself and not so much in relation to its producing region.

The recommendations of Yohann Castaing to market successfully the Malbec are to:

- associate the Malbec's image to tradition and modernism and
- differentiate Argentina and Cahors Malbecs through the true values of each region.

His presentation was followed by the one of the consulting firm Eranos from Paris on the imaginary dimension of the Malbec grape. The speaker valued the symbolic color of the Malbec, the black. Black is the color of unity, since it's the sum of the primary colors. It unifies Argentina, country of purity and Cahors, city of the world.

Tasting on the Valentré Bridge

After the conference, listeners, speakers and officials gathered on the bridge to taste the wines of over 100 producers from Cahors, Touraine, Argentina and eat the food cooked again by the best chefs of the Lot area. We'll put on line in the next few days the complete list of producers and wines selected for the event.

The Friendship Pact between City of Cahors and the Province of Lujan in Argentina

After an evening spent discovering wines and food from France and Argentina, officials and journalists gathered at the Town Hall to sign the Friendship Pact between the City of Cahors and the Province of Lujan. The eventful but tiring day ended by an offical dinner in one of the best restaurants of Cahors.

On Sunday, the "fiesta" continued. The bridge was open to everybody who could taste wine and food for free all day.

D-Day: grand opening of the International Malbec Days

nospam@example.com (Evelyne Lejeune) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:52:48 +0200

Today is THE day. Everybody interested in Malbec is coming to Cahors. There are 800 people who will attend the VIP evening in the lounge wine bar of Espace Valentré. Several dozens of wine makers will present their wine on the Valentré Bridge. Argentinian officials and wine makers wil also be present.

We'll tell you everything next week when the french-malbec.com team will be back. Stay tuned!

D-2: more details on the International Days

nospam@example.com (Evelyne Lejeune) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:31:54 +0200

Celebrations around our favorite grape, Malbec, start as early as April 3rd with the very exclusive VIP dinner at the Château de Grézels: French and Argentinian officials and wine producers will meet to talk about business.

On April 4th, from 11:00am to 2:00pm, the city of Cahors will welcome enology students from all over France: those lucky people will be part of a private tasting of the Cahors wines on the famous Valentré bridge. In the evening, wine professionals will gather around wine and food pairing in the Espace Valentré.

There are a few extra events on the agenda of April 5th: in the early evening, in the Town Hall of Cahors, the mayor, Jean-Marc Vayssoure-Faure, the Regional President of the Lot department, Gérard Miquel and the Intendent of the Depratment of Lujan de Cuyo will sign the "Friendship Pact" between Cahors, Lujan and the Lot. Other officials will be present: Paul Burlot, honorary Consul of France in Argentina, M. Benitz, Production Minister in the Province of San Juan, José Eduardo Molina, president of the Coviar, Carlo Basso, representing the Lujan wine cellars and Jean-Marie Sigaud, president of the professional syndicate of Cahors. This event will be followed by private dinners, at La Chantrerie for journalists and wine makers and at Mercues for the French and Argentinian officials.

D-3 - Latest news on the Malbec Days

nospam@example.com (Evelyne Lejeune) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:57:15 +0200

The countdown starts today. It's not a joke for Fool's April Day!

Read the program of our convention on Saturday morning and register for the 3 days!

Map of the Valentré Bridge

nospam@example.com (Evelyne Lejeune) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:04:32 +0200

Here is the map of all the attendants on our beautiful Valentré bridge. For professionals, the tastings are open Saturday April 5th from 1:00 to 6:00 pm. For wine lovers, our wine makers and producers will welcome you Sunday all day. Enjoy!

To view the map of the bridge: Download the PDF

News from Cahors: first speakers at the Conference

nospam@example.com (Evelyne Lejeune) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:24:00 +0100

The program of our conference, Malbec, grape of the 21st Century?, is shaping up very nicely. It will take place on April 5th, from 8:30 to 12:30. We now have the names of our first speakers and some details on the organization of the days. Several Argentinian experts will join the conference:

- Omar Parisi, Intendent of the Departement of Lujan
- Jorge Molina, President of Coviar
- Carlos Basso, representing the Lujan cellars and former president del Centro de Bodegueros
- Cristina Pandolfi, National Institute of Viticulture
- Cristobal Sola, Agronomic Institute
- Hernan Ojeda, Inta Mendoza and Inra Montpellier

8:30: Welcome
8:50: Opening talk: Malbec, grape of the 21st Century? Presentation of the speakers.

9:00-10:30: Malbec from France and from the other parts of the world
9:00-9:30 - The specificities of the Malbec from Cahors -
Keynote speaker: Pr. Nicolas Vivas, Director of the CESAMO Laboratory in Bordeaux (listen to his interview on our site)
9:30-10:15 - Panel: Stéphane Derenoncourt, consulting winemaker, Alain Godeau, President of the Controlled Appellation Touraine, Hervé Romat, enologist Côtes de Bourg, Eric Sorana, from Gaillac and Cristobal Jose Somingo Sola, from Argentina and journalists Michel Bettane, Anthony Rose (The Independent, Decanter) and David Cobbold (BFM).

10:30-12:30: Trendy Malbec, Malbec Trends
10:30-11:30 - Statistics: Alcyon Consulting, Gironde ; The imaginary images of Malbec: cabinet Eranos, Paris.
11:30-12:15 - Panel: Cristina Pandolfi and Jorge Molinafrom Argentina, Michel Brulefert (Pernod-Ricard Group), Marc Lecomte, director of Maison Rigal (Groupe Jeanjean), writer Jean-Charles Chapuzet, Pr. Joëlle Brouard, Director of Wine Masters of Business School in Dijon and Dr. Evelyne Resnick, Cabinet Resmo, Web marketing, Paris).
12:15-12:45: Questions and Answers.

12:45 - Closing.

1:00pm: opening of the trade lunch and tatsing on the Pont Valentré.

Come and join us to learn everything about this new trendy grape, Malbec of Cahors! Then, enjoy yourself to our lounge wine bar where the best chefs of Cahors will offer original food matching perfectly our wines.

See you there!

List of wineries present on the bridge

nospam@example.com (Evelyne Lejeune) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:14:26 +0100

Great news! We now have the complete list of the wineries that will present their wines during the International Days. Come and taste their wines on the beautiful Valentré bridge in Cahors on April 4, 5 and 6.

Download the PDF