Lagrezette Blog

Name of origin as against grape variety

by Alain Dominique Perrin

All the studies conducted in the four corners of the globe lead to one and the same truth: 80% of wine drinkers buy a grape variety first, and not a “name of origin”. This is not an Anglo-Saxon trend. We are dealing with a worldwide culture. Such being the case, until 2005 the French stubbornly prohibited any reference to the grape variety on their labels, which was not only idiotic but bad business… This basic mistake proceeds from the idea, which, by the way, is not always incorrect, that all grape varieties do not do well on all types of soil, and that conversely they show a preference for some of them.

Nevertheless, it is hard to see why, since 1935, it was forbidden to mention the grape variety used on the label! Even if this meant clearly favoring “Bordeaux” and “Champagne”. This regulatory archaism has now been done away with by the European Union’s directives, thus allowing us make our products better known in the export arena. And while France today remains our leading market, the United States are now coming up close, thanks to this change in regulations. This is good for our economic balance, and good for the image of our wines.

This does not mean that names of origin are a bad thing. I will always prefer a camembert made the right way to a pale pasteurized imitation. But in the case of our wines, the problem was not lowering quality standards. Quite the contrary, it was providing better information about our products to foreign customers. And it has taken the fundamentalist devotees of the name of origin too long to accept this.

Patience and length of time…

By Alain Dominique Perrin

I have to admit it: I rarely engage in anything without fully committing myself. But as the weeks, months and years pass, I note that winemaking holds a separate place in my life. It requires a lot of time; and—obviously—I do not have a lot. As this passion requires investment, I try to approach that moment when it will become profitable a little at a time. Each year, we make progress, especially as a result of the people who work at Lagrézette and the advice of Michel Rolland.

Vintage after vintage, we make our way towards the desired level of excellence. You have to have patience. Today, there are five or six of us who make fine wines in Cahors. I’m thrilled. And if there were fifty of us, I would be even more so! Because even if, as you know, I do not have much faith in that very French distinction of the AOC wines, I remain convinced that French wines will again find their place in the world because of the ever finer quality of our yield. And it is by working collectively at this ambitious goal that we will re-conquer the ground lost over the last few years.

The Saint Ceré Festival starts one week from now

The Domaine de Lagrézette is a partner of the Saint Ceré Opera  Festival, a highlight of summertime cultural life in the lands of the Lot. It will start in a week, that is, on July 29, with a Tango evening, followed by an « oriental nouba ».

Then the Opera will assert its rights.

This year the Tales of Hoffman will be the highlight of the Festival. On the festival website, you will of course be able to discover the full program of the performances, which will last until August 16. As one evening follows another, we will hear concertos by Mozart, Bach and Handel, an adaptation of the Barber of Seville, and various creations in the spirit of experimentation and creation which has guided the Festival for nearly thirty years. Between Saint-Ceré and Caillac, where Château Lagrézette is located, there is less than an hour by car…. You may gather from that how welcome you will be this summer, both here and there.
please find below the html code giving access to the interactive map between Caillac and Saint Ceré

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Is wine a luxury product?

by Alain Dominique Perrin

The price of a product—any product—must not be confused with luxury!

Wine may be very expensive, and often TOO expensive, but it is not and never will be a luxury. “Luxury” is too hackneyed a word, one that relates to another dimension. Sticking diamonds on a cell phone doesn’t make it a luxury article. Wine has to do with food, pleasant though it may be.

We must not lose sight of simple things just because a market is going berserk. Today’s wine is not ten times better than it was ten years ago. Sometimes it is even the other way around.

But it costs twenty times as much. If tomorrow Parker gibes at the 2007 vintage, advance sale prices may fall by 60%. Of course, there will always be Russian or Asian billionaires ready to buy anything at any price. But those astronomic amounts do not make the product called “wine” a luxury…

Back to Rocamadour

by Alain Dominique Perrin

There were vineyards near Rocamadour as early as Gallo-Roman times, and later on in the Middle Ages. The land, which is excellent, fell into disuse in the sixteenth century. It is now experiencing a rebirth, and so much the better. Rocamadour is less than fifty kilometers north of Cahors. We planted 10 hectares there with viognier and chardonnay, two grape varieties that had never been grown on that land. This year they have won us the Gold Medal of the Salon de l’Agriculture for the 2007 vintage.

At the same time, on 1 hectare, we are also planting syrah, which shows promise. It will certainly be heard from these coming years.

Rocamadour is off to a new start, and that is good news for the French vineyard, if the wine growers who are taking on the job concentrate on producing wines worthy of that superb soil. That is in any case what we wish them. As for us, our wines are produced under the emblem Vins de Pays de France.

The main thing for us is to be able to specify “viognier” and “chardonnay”, which is what the bottles actually contain!

And for a few hectares more…

By Alain Dominique Perrin

I was recently asked how I came up with the peculiar idea of becoming a winemaker… My answer is quite simple: I did not! Even though I now put a lot of energy, passion and time into it, I first "suffered" through the profession before evolving into it!

Here is the story: in late 1979, I wanted to find a very beautiful house that would take my family and me away from the beaten paths and haunts of the jet set. A few minutes from Cahors, I discovered this domaine—nearly in ruins: the Château Lagrézette. We were immediately seduced by the natural beauty of the place and had no trouble imagining what it would become. I could not resist.

And Surprise! On the signing date, the notary informed me that there was an unexpected bonus: "three and a half hectares of plantation rights" for A.O.C. Cahors… Aside from winemakers, no one in France knows that you have to have plantation rights to grow what are called "wine-making grapes"!

Becoming lord of the manner, I was therefore entitled to grow the grapes. It was never in my plans but, stumbling upon the possibility, I came to like the idea… Shortly afterwards, specialists explained to me that the soil was excellent, and, Historians that I approached confirmed that the Lagrézette vineyard was highly esteemed in the 19th century, better yet: they found a document citing the harvests of 1503…

So, I came to realize that I had to admit that that I had one of the oldest vineyards in the region… and, probably, in France!

Next, pen and paper in hand, I quickly saw that planting three and a half hectares was not in the least profitable and so, incompatible with my view of business and enterprise… I then set about looking for new vines to buy in the surrounding area in order to acquire new plantation rights. The vines had to be dug up and then replanted on my domaine as the plantation right is not attached to particular land as long as you remain on the area of appellation.

2001, the odyssey of the Pigeonnier

by Alain Dominique Perrin

We must still wait a while, for the 7 years required have not yet fully elapsed.

My favorite vintage year will soon be able to live up to what it has been promising since it was bottled. I have a great love for the year 2001, and particularly for its Pigeonnier vintage.

I drink very little of it, for it is still young. It is however, already revealing an aromatic wealth of cherries, blackberries, black fruit... extraordinary.

I am very proud of it.

When you taste it now, you already realize its very great potential- but wait another 4 or 5 years… You will then experience a sublime moment, as Robert Parker recommended by grading it 95/100.

7 years and more…

By Alain Dominique Perrin

I would advise anyone who wishes to know the right timing in order to make the best of our wines to wait 7 years, and even more.

This year, the cellars are offering the wines of 2003 and 2004 for sale. You can of course drink them as they are, that is, young. But that would be something of a pity. You won’t get the most pleasure out of them.

The time we take by waiting patiently before harvesting the grapes and putting the wine in casks, the time during which the wine rests before it is blended and then sold, must be answered by a time of eager patience on the part of the consumer. He will be abundantly rewarded when the day comes.

7 years seems a reasonable minimum to me. It is the figure of perfection, or so they sometimes say.

Petitrenaud: a jaunt between Lot and Lagrézette.

On a walking tour with his team in the Lot, in search as always of the thousand and one gastronomic delights produced there, Jean-Luc Petitrenaud, the famous french culinary columnist of France 5, came by in the spring to savor one of his famous « country box lunches ». In the shade of the Pigeonnier, a few bottles of Château awaited the diners…  After the program, which was broadcast early in June, the columnist drew up a list of a few very fine restaurants in the area, which we also warmly recommend.

Le Gindreau (Alexis Pelissou)
46150 Saint-Médard Tel.: 05 65 36 22 27

Le Vinois (Jean-Claude Voisin)
Le Bourg - 46140 Caillac Tel.: 05 65 30 53 60

Le Pont de l'Ouysse (Daniel Chambon)
46200 Lacave Tel.: 05 65 37 87 04

La Récréation (Jacques Ratier)
Le Bourg - 46250 Les Arques Tel.: 05 65 22 88 08

On the France 5 website (written in french ) you will also find, besides Lagrézette, a few local addresses of fine producers of our home-grown livers, poultry and cheeses, as well as that of a master truffler, Pebeyre, who is among the very highly renowned.

In September, we will have an opportunity of taking a closer look as those regional products, which get along famously with the bottles of Malbec, Viognier and Chardonnay which we offer wine lovers…