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South-West France - Fronton, Cahors and Madiran wines

Impatient to get stuck into the new arrivals from South-West France, I notice that Montauriol's "Mons Aureolus" is 2005, not 2004 as expected. Obviously this needs to be investigated. The wine is a fruit bomb, literally exploding in the mouth with the highly perfumed Négrette taking centre stage as expected. Nicely oaked too. The wine really needs a little time - it was much more mellow the following day.#

28/02/08 After the Montauriol was polished off, another cork was pulled, this time from a bottle of Lamartine's "Cuvée Particulière", a mere toddler from the 2004 vintage.As the bottle progressed it grew up though going from slightly awkward to deep and interesting. It didn't last long enough to get really profound though. Next time, perhaps (or just leave it to the Expression).

01/03/08 First tasting since its arrival of Lacassagne's 2004 Madiran - a little more reserved than earlier tastings but with a bit of breathing the fruit starts to shine out. My guess is this will need a couple of weeks to settle after its journey (previous bottles were left to settle longer than this!) and it will be an instant hit.

03/03/2008 Lamartine's standard wine from 2004 - simply Château Lamartine, Cahors - is a lesson is understatement and just right for some home-made spicy kofte kebabs. No pretension here, just honest wine for drinking. No hurry though: my guess is it will be better still in another year or so.

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