Château de Mercuès, bought and revitalized by the Vigouroux family in the 1980s, is closely linked to the revival of the Cahors AOC wines, of which it is one of the jewels.
By Romain Rivière
The history of Cahors wines is not written without him. Born in the Lot region in the 1930s, Georges Vigouroux – who passed away in 2019 – inherited the beautiful family business in the early 1960s, which had been in the wine business for a century. As a visionary, he directed it towards the bottling business, giving the company a national dimension. In 1971, when the 440-hectare Cahors vineyard obtained the appellation d’origine contrôlée, he decided before anyone else to go into viticulture and worked on the replanting of Château Haute-Serre, on the Cahors hillside, of which he managed, over the years, to replant 58 hectares. Following the visionary impulse of Georges Vigouroux, a number of winegrowers gradually replanted the abandoned hectares so that the Cahors appellation quickly multiplied its production area by 10, making Georges Vigouroux the pioneer of malbec and the spearhead of the new era that began for Cahors wines. Not content with rebuilding Haute-Serre, Georges Vigouroux bought the Château de Mercuès, the architectural jewel of the Querçy region, at the beginning of the 1980s, and launched the family business into the adventure of wine tourism.
Flagship of the family since that time, the Château de Mercuès benefits from an atypical vineyard, half of which is planted at 6666 vines per hectare, making it possible to obtain concentrated wines that are well suited to ageing. With their deep black color and their complex and refined aromas, they celebrate a terroir of excellence capable of expressing itself through ever more appreciated vintages. Bertrand-Gabriel Vigouroux, following in his father’s footsteps, carries out the vinification with great rigor: plot-by-plot selection, selection of the grapes distributed vat-by-vat and plot-by-plot, long pumping over to extract the finest tannins from the Malbec, the search for the best harmony between the wine and the wood thanks to multiple tests on barrels of different origins, etc
Located on the high terrace of the Mindel, the vineyard of Mercuès produces wines of great richness. Icône WOW, in AOC Cahors, is the quintessence of this. This great wine, 100% Malbec, produced in very limited quantities, is aged for 24 months in new barrels after a meticulous vinification. When tasted, Icône WOW reveals an exceptional delicacy mixed with a remarkable power. Also an AOC Cahors, Malbec 6666 is made with grapes from a vineyard planted at high density with 6,666 vines per hectare, where the average is 4,500 vines. Coming from the best parcels, the grapes are vinified separately to refine the final blend. This 100% Malbec is then aged for 18 months in oak barrels from the Allier. This great wine offers a beautiful complexity with flavors of licorice, and chocolate and notes of black fruits. Its delicate tannins give it a fine balance.
