Cahors today is flipping the old script and making some of the most elegant, aromatically complex wines in Southwest France. The change we’ve seen in the last decade is that growers are returning to the highlands, the limestone “Causses” of the southern half of the appellation. From the 14th century to the 19th century, it was the elegant Malbec from these plateaus that made it one of France’s most famous wines. Only when phylloxera and repeated frosts came between the 1880s and 1960s that the region fell into obscurity, vineyards on the plateaus were abandoned in favor of the clay and gravel riverbanks where wines grow dense and dark and brooding. Julien Ilbert is one of a group of young vignerons who are looking to turn back time. Julien’s winery stands on three bedrock principles, strictly organic farming, strictly 100% Malbec, and an emphasis on elegance over power. This is still, however, an earthy wine, with notes of blackberry compote, potting soil, black pepper, and a hint of tar. The palate is medium weight, with a dark cherry baseline, orange peel, iron rich soil, with substantial grippy tannins that don’t bite too hard. This is a wine made for cassoulet.