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mer province of Quercy. hails from Gaillac, located between Bordeaux and
Cahors. The cross-pollination probably occurred
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Bordeaux on the banks of the River Lot in Cahors, perhaps
clarets were light and almost pink in color, as before France was conquered by Roman legions or
opposed to their competition, Burgundian Pinot later, in the Middle Ages.
Noir, which was dense, fruity and deeply colored.
It is likely that Malbec was a catalyst for the transi- Around 150 A.D., the city of Cahors, which was
tion of Bordeaux wines into the more concentrated known as Divona at the time, was the Roman capi-
style we know today. These days Pinot Noir is the tal of the province of Quercy in what is now France.
lighter, paler and more delicate of the two. It was here that the first mention of the grape was
recorded, although its precise origins continue to
DNA analysis carried out in France in 2009 deter- be a mystery. Malbec might have come to Divona
mined that Magdeleine Noire was the mother from Italy, brought by the Roman invaders, or per-
of the Malbec, and Prunelard its father. The for- haps it was already in France when the Romans
mer, which also gave birth to Merlot, comes from arrived in Gaul, and they simply adopted it and con-
the Charentes region, about 80 miles north of tinued its cultivation. It is also featured in literary
Bordeaux, while the fruity and tannic Prunelard history: praise for the ancient wine of Cahors can
be found in the Odes of Horace
and in Virgil’s poems.
Historians agree that in spite of
the foreign invasions that occurred
during the decline of the Roman
empire, Malbec retained its repu-
tation and continued to be grown.
When we get to the Middle Ages,
the story of Malbec becomes
inextricably entwined with that of
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204)
the only woman ever to be queen
of both France and England.
Eleanor inherited a third of pres-
ent-day France, the Duchy of
Aquitaine, from her father. Malbec
plantations are thought to have
extended beyond Cahors down
to the Pyrenees (Madiran) in the
South and across the eastern bank
of the Dordogne River from Saint-
Émilion to Côtes de Bourg.
Eleanor preferred the wine from
her region over the offerings from
the Loire and Burgundy generally
chosen by the Parisian aristocra-
cy. At age fifteen, she was mar-
ried to the man who would soon
become Louis VII of France. Later
on, the “black wine,” as Malbec
would come to be known, most
likely flowed at Eleanor’s Courts of
Love, festivals of music and poetry
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