Producer
Château Haut-Monplaisir is a twenty-eight hectare estate owned by Cathy and Daniel Fournié. Cathy inherited it from her father, who had sold all the wine off to négociants. On taking over in 1998, however, she and Daniel decided to aim for top quality, and bottle at the château. Pascal Verhaeghe, a successful Cahors producer in his own right, has endorsed the Fourniés’ belief in their excellent terroir from the beginning, and still consults at the estate.
Vineyard
The vineyards of Château Haut-Monplaisir lie just south of the river Lot, on the third of the three alluvial terraces that rise above the river. This third terrace is composed of clay-flint soil covered in galets (large stones), and is generally considered the best of the numerous Cahors terroirs. Yields has been reduced from 120 hectolitres per hectare in the bad old days to a maximum of fifty under the new regime. Since 2009, the vineyards have been in conversion to organic viticulture.
Winery
The grapes were hand-sorted, destemmed and crushed, and then fermented at 27-28ºC in stainless steel tanks with twice-daily punching-down. After a 25-30 day maceration, the wine was racked to barrel (one third new oak) for twenty months’ maturation. It was bottled without filtration.
