Janicot Vignobles, Domaine De Mériguet, Grand Mériguet, Cahors, Southwest France, France 2018

Few of France’s great terroirs are as overlooked and as undervalued as Cahors, so our judges were happy to find a small set of wines from this beautiful, remote zone on the river Lot to scrutinise for our Best In Show selection. This was the one which stood out. It’s a saturated, dense black-purple in colour -- perhaps the most deeply coloured wine in our top 50, and a swirl leaves streaks on the glass. Fresh, vibrant tea-leaf and rose scents betray its Malbec origins, and there is ample green-pepper freshness in the fruits, too. On the palate, it is bright and high-focus, a wine of great intensity, depth and poise, fine-textured and long. The pristine fruits linger all the way through the finish, and it wears its oak very lightly: propitious vineyards, skilled viticulture and fine winemaking are all in evidence here.

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