JOFFREAU CAHORS

Jouffreau, Clos de Gamot

Jouffreau family has been running their winery in Clos de Gamot for centuries. In 1882 the winery had to face the serious problem of phylloxera which hit the vines of Clos de Gamot and started destroying them. Guillaume Jouffreau, in the attempt of saving the vineyard, during winters 1883-1884 tried to graft in different ways the last branches of Malbec from some preserved vines.

The attempt to plant Malbec on the rootstock of the Herbemont variety proves to be successful, these new plants are resistant to phylloxera: Guillaume Jouffreau just saved the Clos de Gamot vineyard but also the whole Cahors vineyard, which will be largely replanted thanks to the clones of the Clos de Gamot vines in 1885. This vineyard, more than 120 years old, is still part of Clos de Gamot, which extends for 18 hectares of vineyards where only one vine is cultivated: Malbec.

That part of 120 years old historic vines still produces at very low yields of 10 to 15 hl/ha. In these clusters of pure Malbec we find the concentration, power, richness and original expression of this grape variety, while the other part of the vineyard is between 40 and 70 years old. In order to maintain the characteristics of the terroir, the parcels are vinified separately giving authentic wines of the highest quality, pure expressions of the terroir.