Valérie Courrèges
Cahors & Provence, France
After spending years working across major wine regions including Bordeaux, Chile and California, Valérie Courrèges eventually returned to her roots in southwest France. The result feels less like a career move and more like somebody deciding they would rather make wines that genuinely reflected where they came from.
Based in Cahors and Provence, Courrèges works organically and biodynamically, focusing on low-intervention winemaking and careful vineyard farming. Indigenous yeasts, gentle extraction and minimal cellar manipulation all play important roles across the range.
Malbec naturally sits at the centre of the Cahors wines, but the style tends to favour freshness and precision rather than the heavier, more rustic expressions the region was once associated with. Dark fruit, herbs, spice and structure remain present, though carried with considerably more lift and elegance. Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Franc also feature in some cuvées.
What makes the wines particularly appealing is that they feel modern without losing their sense of place. There is plenty of technical knowledge behind them, but very little sense of winemaking for its own sake. The vineyards remain firmly at the centre of the conversation.
Cahors has spent the last decade quietly reinventing itself. Producers like Valérie Courrèges are a large part of the reason people have started paying closer attention again.
