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Cahors ‘pioneer’ Vigouroux dies
Georges Vigouroux, a winemaker considered by many as a pioneer of French Malbec who helped revive the Cahors region, has died aged 83.
Vigouroux passed away on 7 February. He was one of the winemakers who helped revive Cahors in the 1970s, the southern French wine region having been devastated by Phylloxera in the 19th century.
In 1971 plantings in Cahors covered just 440 hectares. That same year Vigouroux acquired the Château de Haut Serre and replanted the old vineyards.
He was among a new wave of winemakers who began investing in the region and brought it back from the brink.
In 1983 he also acquired the Château de Mercuès, owned by Relais & Châteaux, and built a winery and restaurant, ‘Le Dueze’.
It was an early dip into the waters of oeno-tourism and the property (its restaurant also having a Michelin star) are renowned to this day as an important part of luxury wine tourism in the region.
Vigouroux handed over the running of the company to his son, Bertrand Gabriel, over the course of the last decade.
We visited Chateau Haute Serre one Sunday morning in the mid’90’s while holidaying near Cahors. M. Vigouroux was conducting a wine tasting for a coachload of French pensioners. He gestured to is to sit to one side, and after the pensioners left was charming and repeated the tasting just for the pair of us. He was over the moon when we bought six cases, and was a generous and gracious host for us that morning. It’s sad to see his passing. Haute Serre is an amazing wine for the price. We’ve bought it as often as we can get our hands on it since, and it cellars well for years. Along with his other Cahors ‘Clos de Gamot’, both stonkingly good modern Cahors wines.