Discover the difference between Malbec and Cot with French winemaker in Argentina, Francois Lurton. The difference is in more than just the name according to this experienced winemaker who makes both red wine varieties in his Lurton wine estate in the Uco Valley, Mendoza, and has a wealth of experience making wine in the New World and Old World. In this candid interview, he discusses his experiences as a vigneron in Bordeaux, Chile, Spain and Argentina.
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Clip transcript for the hearing impaired:
One of the main interesting points of your Lurton winery there in Argentina is very much about the grape. You are one of the few, or only producers I think in Argentina, that actually markets a Cot as well as a Malbec. Can you tell us a bit about the difference between the grapes?
The Cot is a bigger producer than the Malbec. So if you don’t reduce the production of the Cot, generally you don’t arrive at the same suavity, the same nice tannins that you can have on the Malbec. So for that Cot doesn’t have so much of a good reputation. There are many producers who have Cot but they don’t speak of Cot. Because of this reputation. Myself, I’m not scared of the Cot because the Cot is the French Malbec and also because myself I know how to manage it. I have managed it in another life here in France and because with this variety I work it with high density of plantation, I work it with a low yield and this variety gives me some very interesting wines. So I’m very proud to have this Malbec. But there’s other people who don’t speak of Malbec, of this Cot, because they are not proud of it. That’s the point, the differences between the two. The Malbec is a variety which has developed inside the country which has crossed the Andes coming from Chile, coming with roots. You can’t carry a plant by the seeds. If you want to plant the seeds there is a huge transformation, the plant adapts to the soil and the climate and there is a big degeneration. The Malbec has come on roots and it is probably one of the best Malbec of France which has come. This variety has disappeared in France. So today what we have as Cot is not exactly the same variety as the Malbec which had arrived at this time. Because it arrived on roots it didn’t change that much, there is a lot of masal selection/plantation, but at the end, we get a variety which is slightly different because the berries are smaller than the berries of the Cot and the leaf is a little bit less round, a little bit more cut. And so that’s the small differences after that when you work them with low yield they don’t produce exactly the same wine. We can say that the Cot is more in the Cabernet style with rough tannins a little bit more juice, where as the Argentine Malbec is more fruity, rounder, more red fruit expression and soft and round.
