Chateau de Chambert's history is strongly intertwined with Cahors', which was already famous for its 'black wines' made from the Malbec grape variety, locally called Auxerrois, in the Middle Ages. It produces deeply coloured, very tannic wines, with dark berry fruit, earthy aromas and cedar notes from oak ageing. Even if free trade via rivers Lot and Garonne was often hampered by Bordeaux merchants (who would rather use them for blending into their Bordeaux wines than letting them pass without high tariffs), Cahors wines were famous and highly appreciated in Northern Europe. Back then, Chateau de Chambert wines were already exported to England and Russia.
End of the 19th century, phylloxera devastated the region. But unlike in so many other European wine-growing regions, vines were not replanted here until 1973! There was simply no rootstock to be found that matched with Malbec. It took many decades until Montpellier University's viticultural research center has cultivated the right rootstock, and since the 1970s, Malbec vineyards gradually increased (for this purpose, the clones had to be re-imported from Argentina). But still, many former vineyards lie fellow, and many ruins in the region still bear testimony to Cahor's decay due to Phylloxera. On the other hand, hardly any other region can be said to host as many treasures waiting to be rediscovered and revived.
Since 2007, Chateau de Chambert is owned by Philippe Lejeune who - with financial investments sustained by his innovative IT career, know-how from consultant Stephane Derenoncourt and a passionate team - manages the estate on its path towards biodynamic viticulture as well as international recognition. The declared aim is to bring the title 'world's best Malbec' from Argentina back home to Cahors.
My host: Jan Arend (taking care of national sales and administration)
Today, the estate produces a wide range of styles, with the Grand Vin being its flagship product made from 100% Malbec. The GOURMAND red and rosee wines are fruit-driven and easy-drinking, with Malbec constituting 80% of the blend, and 20% Merlot to give mellow roundness and lush fruit. In order to accommodate the clients' demand for a complementing white wine of this brand, the estate has just planted a few hectares of Chardonnay, which is expected to be very well suited to soils and mesoclimate. And there is ROGOMME, a fortified dessert wine, produced according to a 300 year old 'recipe' Philippe found when searching the Chateau's archives: very ripe and healthy Malbec grapes are heated in pots containing prune flavours (from previous prune production) and wine is reduced. The resulting liquid, which is highly concentrated in flavours of prune, blackcurrant and elderberries as well as very tannic, is fortified with grape spirit and aged in French oak barrels for 18 months, picking up notes of tobacco, sweet spice and dark chocolate.
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