Cahors – letting in the light

A renaissance in South West France.

Thursday, 20 February 2025
cahors-valley-autumn-light-jerome-morel

When I studied for the WSET diploma nearly two decades ago, we were taught that the homeland of Malbec was Cahors in South-West France. We’d sit at our stark benches on hard, floor-scraping chairs in the ice-cold classrooms of the WSET’s Bermondsey London school, watching with trepidation as rattling trollies of identical, label-less, numbered green bottles were wheeled in and passed down the tables, from trembling student to trembling student, each of us carefully trying not to pour too much (or pouring too much) wine in our ISO glasses. (Now that I come to...