Valérie Courrèges Zinzolin ‘Un Flot de Raisins Bleus’ 2021

Vinification

40% Malbec, 30% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Franc and 10% Merlot from red marl over limestone soils on the Coteaux du Quercy. Vineyards in conversion to biodynamics, hand-harvested grapes, largely destemmed but uncrushed, vinified in separate parcels in concrete tanks. 12 months aging in concrete tank and clay pots, bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal added sulphites.

Valérie Courrèges

Valérie Courrèges is a young mercenary winemaker with a background in chemistry. She returned to her ancestral lands of Cahors in 2019, after an intense career as a hired oenologist at domaines in California, Chile and Provence. Together with husband Mathieu Cosse she had bought 22 ha. of gravelly vineyards from Clos Rességuier, which they started converting to biodynamic farming right away.

Valérie’s ambition is to make wines that would excite her grandfather: pure, digestible and firmly rooted in the local red-clay terroir. Not as coarse as the Cahors of yore, yet also steering clear of the oaky blandness of Argentine-inspired producers. To do so, Courreges lets indigenous yeasts ferment destemmed but uncrushed grapes in small concrete vats, after which the wine ages in concrete tanks and clay pots. Before bottling the wines are minimally sulphured and neither fined nor filtered, giving them a beautifully grainy, open and lively texture.

At Chabrol we couldn’t be more pleased to carry Valérie’s first bottlings, the 100% Malbec Cahors AOC ‘Ocrement Dit’ and the blended Vin de France ‘Zinzolin’ (a blend of Malbec, Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Merlot). Both are equally honest and delicious reflections of their origin, rustic and earthy but with a minimally-extracted precision that reveals the hand of a seasoned and forward-looking artisan.