– Not surprisingly the Compagnie France Malbec is located in Cahors where the main grape variety is – Malbec. Ghislaine Baltenweck and her husband owns a small vineyard, but their main activity is a ‘négoce’ where they buy grapes from 400 other producers and sell mainly on export. They make three different wines, Impernal, Le Paradis and Malbec de France – Plant du Roy. Their main market in South America and China! There’s already a big “local” production of Malbec in South America – it’s one of the main grapes in Argentina – but the Baltenwecks hope to convince the consumers that “the original” is worth trying, even if they admit that Cahors is still not very well known internationally. For the Cuvée Malbec de France-Plant du Roy they have designed the bottle with an original orange coloured label and capsule, apparently specifically to attract female Brazilian consumers. The wine is quaffable but very well structured – it is after all a 100% Malbec.
