Wine tasting in France and Italy can be a very personalized experience, especially with HWBT.  We select small, family owned vineyards for picnics and intimate tasting of the most delicious and hard-to-find-in-the-U.S. wines.  We usually spend an hour or so, we may lose track of time(!) with vintners and friends whom we have gathered over the years from visiting France and Italy.  Bernard Barré and Pierre Léon are two of our very favorites in the Loire Valley.  The Dordogne and Le Lot Valleys provide a plethora of vintners to visit - narrowing it down to a few favorites is a challenge.  The Provence region has yet another set of types of wines to try - especially the rosés.  We will truly have fun in the sun with those pink wines!  Finally the Burgundy wines are new additions to our repetoire du vin!  Stay tuned for some great descriptions for wines from the Bourgogne!

Sometimes, depending on the time of the year, we get lucky and our tours are timed just right when harvesting time is "ripe".  Many vineyard owners let us get right in and help cut the grapes off the vine.

Each area we visit has different types of grapes, and we get to learn about how the weather was over the past year, learn about the mixture of grapes for their wines, and their specific aging methods.  It really is an up-close glimpse into the special art of wine making.

The Cahors wine appellation covers some 40,0000 hectares of which 4,000 are planted with vines - out of a potential 12,000 hectares.  It involves 45 communes and is situated in the southwest of the Lot department in France.  The vines are found either on the terraces and higher edges of the Lot Valley, or on the planes which overlook the valley and where the land starts to slope down.

It is well known that wines of great quality come from vineyards which enjoy the proximity to a river, which inflects the elements toward optimum ripening of the grapes.  These geological and climactic conditions of the Cahors "terroir" have enabled the Auxerrois grape (the variety that is dominant in Cahors wine - also known as Malbec or Cot) to come into its own.

The Malbec strongly marks the wine it makes with its personality - it can be defined with a round leaf with blisters.  The bunch of grapes is very open and well separated.  The skin is dark and rich in tannins.  It generally ripens in October.  The juice is very dark, with abundant tannins and strong aromas.  To start with, it can be very austere, with low alcohol, which is where the other two grape varieties come in: Merlot and Tannat.  The Merlot gives roundness, polishing the bouquet and softening the wine when young.  Tannat reinforces the aging capacity of Cahors, and brings a good level of alcohol.

New information on Burgundy wines coming soon!