About Us
We are Mike and Sue Spring, the owners of Domaine du Garinet, a small wine estate in the Cahors area of the beautiful Lot valley, in south-west France.
photo Michele Ch'i
We produce very high quality red, white and rosé wines using modern methods to give fine wines that are typical of our area. Our Cahors red is made entirely from malbec grapes, which give our wines an intense, almost black, colour.
Everything is done and supervised by us at the property, from the vine to the bottle, giving the ultimate in traceability and quality control.
We sell our wines at reasonable prices; they are not over-priced 'elite' wines.
This site presents our wines, and there’s a complete price list and information on how you can obtain them - How to Buy. The sections on Vines and Winemaking each start with an overview, to give you a quick picture of how we work, but more detail follows if you want to know more. There’s also a page about our other traditional products - Walnuts and Prunes.
We enjoy meeting the many customers who come to us to buy directly from the property, to see the vines and chai (winery), and to ask us about vinegrowing and winemaking - see Contact/Visit. The Lot Valley page tells you a little about the many attractions of our area. Do come and see us if you come to SW France!
**Latest News:
The 2011 sauvignon (La Combe) is regrettably all sold out - however the 2012 crop is rather larger and of excellent quality; it should be available around the end of April 2013.
The 2012 wines have now all finished their fermentation. The overall quality is fully up to standard, and the quantities rather better than the previous two years. We have made Cuvée Bonheur to follow on from the 2010, and we have also made a very small quantity of our oak fermented chardonnay, Clos d'Or.
We were pleased that our 2009 barrel-aged cahors received a starred entry in Guide Hachette for 2013. It's a really dense and concentrated wine so it will be some time before it will start to show its real quality - please be patient!
New wine classifications - see Our Wines for the new terms which replace AOC and Vin de Pays.