Malbec, Anyone?
My, how things can change in ten years, especially in the world of wine. In the 1997 (burgundy) copy of The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia, Tom Stevenson muses about the differences between Chile and Argentina. He proposes:
What really excites modern consumers is premium-quality wine at bargain (but not necessarily cheap) prices. Argentina is perfectly placed to supply this demand, when its producers wake up to the fact. If and when they do, the producers of Chile might have something to worry about. At the moment, however, Chile has nothing to fear from Argentina.
Well, readers and drinkers, those producers have stopped hitting the snooze button. They’re up and at it, as can be attested by my attendance at a Malbec tasting the other night. After meeting The Winehiker up at Fogarty, he invited me to an Argentinian sampling of vino. I’m glad I accepted. We tasted six wines, ranging from $15 to $85, which we rated on a scale of 20 points, using our handy scoring sheets. I thought I might be intimidated by the formality of it, but that actually made for better analysis–which was not the case at the Riesling tasting a few days prior.
The results: the group favorite was the 2003 Bramare Malbec (a Paul Hobbs venture), out of Mendoza. Running at the most expensive, this wine spoke to me of vanilla, toast, and sweet strawberries. My personal favorite was one of the least costly: a 2005 Terrazas Malbec. While the palate was almost pure fruit, the nose gave off lovely hints of caramel, allspice, and cinnamon. Another bargain beauty was the 2004 Melipal, with its sweet plum, blackberry, tobacco, and coffee.
My two which scored the lowest came from a lack of balance and luscious fruits you come to expect from Malbec. I correctly guessed there was some age on the 2001 Enzo Bianchi from San Rafael, due to the subdued cherry flavor, but it also seemed a bit hot (though it only had 13% abv). The 2005 La Posta was rather green, too vegetal for my tastes.
And of course, I had to bring some culinary delights. In addition to the yummy cheese provided, along with meat balls and my first ever taste of brussel sprouts, I brought beef crostini, half decorated with roasted red pepper aioli, the other half with with the bourbon BBQ sauce I had previously made for my pizza.
Overall, a great experience that reminded me I need to drink more Malbec.
….Farley Walker
Malbec tasting, 2003 Bramare Malbec, Mendoza, 2005 Terrazas Malbec
February 13th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Malbec tasting, huh? I had my first Malbec the other night at a varied tasting, and I wasn’t all that impressed, but then again, I wasn’t all that impressed with any of the 3 reds that were presented. Perhaps I ought to shoot for a slightly higher price range, as this was a tasting geared to the $15 price range.
February 13th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I must admit that my first couple of Malbecs were barely mediocre. Like the Enzo Bianchi, they were too tight with not nearly enough fruit; both were “bargain bin”. The La Posta hadn’t been my favorite the other night, either, but it opened well over the course of this past weekend. I enjoyed it last night with (you guessed it) meatballs and brussels sprouts! With the exception of the Bramare, which I obtained from bottlenotes.com, the other five Malbecs were BevMo purchases. Go stock up!
Nice post, Farley! What’re yer druthers for my next tasting?
February 14th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Farley, you should email me privately and tell me what made this tasting a bit more serious. I’d like to know what we can do to up our learning and tasting curve.