On Thursday April 17th I participated in
World Malbec Day by sampling through seven Argentinian Malbecs through
Argovino's #WhyILoveMalbec Twitter tasting. There were several tweets on the grape's lineage, history, and current planting. The parent grapes of Malbec are Prunelard & Magdeleine Noire des Charentes and it has traditionally been a minor grape in Bordeaux and a major player in Cahors (SW France) where it is known as Auxerrois or Côt Noir. In 1868, Malbec was introduced into Argentina and has found a unique home in high altitude Mendoza. The Malbec grape is thin-skinned and requires plenty of sun to ripen and in Argentina the Malbec bunches are smaller, tighter, more deeply colored than those of Cahors. Perhaps a different clone. Here are my tweets for each wine:
- The Alamos Malbec 2012: blackberry cherry; rustic aroma, smooth tannins, slight spic
- 2013 Postales Del Fin Del Mundo Malbec: earthy aroma; tannic hot: mellows quite a bit. Not as much fruit flavor. I found the Postales to be very earthy, less fruit than others, where the tannins mellowed nicely
- Argento Malbec 2012: blackberry aroma; chewy palette, more dark chocolate, smooth tannins
- Zuccardi Serie A Malbec 2012: earthy tobacco aroma.Medium tannins, more earth than dark black fruit
- Santa Julia Reserva 2012: toasted plum aroma; another earthy flavor, a little bite in the tail
- Gascon Reserva Malbec 2011: blackberry smoke aroma; blackberry chewing tobacco and dark chocolate; mid tannins - one of my favorites
- Bodega del Fin del Mundo Reserva 2011: tobacco aroma, blackberries, earthy minerals, dark chocolate, a slight pepper finish. A little more tannins.
