Open Mike: Malbec from Argentina.

Carry on like this and you could be in the running for Vice-Honcho of the Malbec Hounds!!

Carry on like this and you could be in the running for Vice-Honcho of the Malbec Hounds!!

By golly, I would love nothing more than to be a "Vice-Honcho" of anything; let alone that of the esteemed Malbec Hounds. LOL

BTW, picked up a bottle Dona Paula's '05 Los Cardos today and something else (malbec of course) that I'll be speaking of later.
TTFN

The regular `05 Dona Paula is on the shelf here plus a new Reserve in that big heavy bottle!! Cardos sould be a nice drink though.

2005 Terrazas De Los Andes Malbec - 13.5% alc.
ELEVATION: 3500 FEET

This stuff, so far, is my second favorite malbec. Second only to my beloved "Salentein"! Deep inky crimson and violet color. Perfumey, fruity nose with notable hints of Mendoza. No, I've never been there, but this is what I've been discovering as one of the distinct magical elements of great Mendoza Malbec - very distinct nose filled with rose petal, dark fruit - plum, blackberry, currant, and hints of sweet spice - allspice, cinnamon with slight notes of savory pepper spice. These tranfer tremendously well to the palate inculcating yet even more sensual intrigue with the addition of strawberry jam, cocoa, vanilla, cedar, toast and a very faint petoleum/tar note. Still young, however, but not overly tannic. I've got some on hold in the cellar and would thrill to see what a little age will do to this great "Nectar of the Vine" - that is, a vine from--------Mendoza, Argentina!

Aaron, wonderful notes from a budding Malbec Hound. Keep this up and I can see the possibility of a T shirt coming your way!!! LOL.

Aaron, wonderful notes from a budding Malbec Hound. Keep this up and I can see the possibility of a T shirt coming your way!!! LOL.

Well, Bob, I'm definitely going to be "keeping it up" for awhile so I look forward to the "Malbec Hound" knighthood whenever or where ever it takes place. LOL

Aaron, wonderful notes from a budding Malbec Hound. Keep this up and I can see the possibility of a T shirt coming your way!!! LOL.

Well, Bob, I'm definitely going to be "keeping it up" for awhile so I look forward to the "Malbec Hound" knighthood whenever or where ever it takes place. LOL

In order to qualify for such a knighthood, you have to repeat after me............"I promise (hic-cup) to keep this Malbec Hound Open Mike going for at least another 2 months or more".

Just think, Aaaron, we have all the `05 coming on the market soon.

FINCA LAS HIGUERAS - MALBEC - 2005 from Bodegas Jacques-François Lurton

I bought this from our local supermarket for approx EUR 3,50. Another Malbec from Trivento was on offer at EUR 7,79 But I was put off by the back label praising its vanilla notes and maturation in new oak barrels.

TN: N: round nondescript fruit aromas on N. P: Quite velvety feel and medium weight sweet round fruit. But no backbone and grip, little length and mouthfill. In two words, bland and boring.

A disappointing effort from a respected Bordeaux house.

You may say "what else can you expect at that price". I answer that a couple of metres across the aisle, there are a Côtes du Rhône "Les Truffières" and a Côtes du Rhône Sablet as well as a Corbières Les Palais and a Minervois Les Aires Hautes on offer at a similar price which show twice or three times the personality.

Hi Tim, bad news about the Lurton eh. I think one has to sometimes creep up the price ladder? But then again, wines like Los Cardos are good for the same price I`d say. Try another maybe?

Here is my most recent tasting note for the `04 Catena Malbec. Not a lot of change from previous bottles posted here. Opened 2 hrs, decanted, 14% alc and from higher elevations (the new in trend).

WTN: `04 Malbec Catena.

The colour was a dark ruby w. bright purple tinges on the rim. The nose showed the usual black fruits but lacked the expresso of the `03. The initial mouthfeel entry showed cherry, plum, raspberry, low tannins, good balance. It`s all pretty one-dimensional with a ripe tone in a lingering finish. No sour cherry with this bottle and no changes over 24 hrs. Was this a very hot vintage, Alej?

Malbec Hound.

Bob Parsons wrote,
In order to qualify for such a knighthood, you have to repeat after me............"I promise (hic-cup) to keep this Malbec Hound Open Mike going for at least another 2 months or more".

Just think, Aaaron, we have all the `05 coming on the market soon.




2 MONTHS?!

2 MONTHS??!!

I could keep this thing going for 2 (hiccup) months (hiccup again) standing on my (hiccup yet again) head!!

Aaron, we appear to be in good company!!! All Malbec Hounds should be aware that HRH Jancis is in Argentina as I speak!!!!!!

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/20070221

Ah, Argentine Malbec... I guess better late than never to this thread.

A couple of years ago I took a trip to Buenos Aires that proved full of atrocious revelations, winewise. I had been a beleiver in the "promise" of Argentine wines, particularly those made with Malbec and, as far as I'd been able ot find samples, those made with the beautifully fragrant white variety Torrontés. But what I found on that trip of Argentina was a pointy freak show of wood and spoofulation. I could sense there might have been good material in many wines, but the vast majority of them were so manipulated and wooded that they were little beyond silicone tit implants in an oaken coffin.

I think I may have tried more than a hundred wines and actually liked six. That the majority of the offensive ones were red was almost inevitable, isnce any number of excellent meals I had in Buenos Aires consisted of red-wine-loving foodstuffs.

This said, I have continued to sample Malbecs here and there over the past few years and found some pleasant surprises. The wines of Achaval Ferrer, while not especially thrilling, can be quite tasty and are not over-the-top in terms of new oak, alcohol, or other baddies. And, of course, there's the magnificent Malbec "Estrella" from Weinert. If you can spare $75-100 for the bottle of the 1977, which is still around over here, it's the best reference point I can think of for what Argentine Malbec can be.

And at the cheap end of things... Josie and I have been going to Lamaze classes over the past five weeks. These classes tend to bore me to pieces and only serve the purpose of furthering my doubts about how to deal with the by-now rapidly approaching arrival of the Camblor twins. But there's a plus side... A litrtle Argentine restaurant on 75th and 1st Av. called La Hacienda Argentina, where they do some very nice sweetbreads and can burn a mean bife de chorizo. Since Josie's not partaking, I'm condemned to the by-the-glass end of things. I was pleasantly surprised, on the last visit to the restaurant, by a clean little Mlabec from a producer named Budini. Very modestly oaked, with good acidity. A fresh, lively and structured little red to wash down bloody beef. Of course, one of our Argentina experts will probably jump up and say it's some insufferable industrial crap made in some factory and that I should go back and try some obscenely-priced bottle from one of the pointy producers if I want "real Malbec splendor". But this Budini was cheap, cheerful and food-friendly. And there is, in my view, amazing merit in that.

Oh, and just to keep things in context and know what the Malbec grape can do, perhaps you should try one of those pesky Clos Roche Blanche "Côt" bottlings from Touraine that are so talked-about in other parts of the wine internet. I hear the 2005s are coming in...

Welcome, Manuel, to Wine Ther...er... the WLDG! The best place on the internet to discuss Malbec, when the other best place to discuss Malbec is no more.

"Joe Perry"? Weren't you that guy with the ridiculous Wine Wedding Registry?

I can't remember. It all seems so long ago and far away...

So you're most definitely not the guitarist of Aerosmith... I mean, I know a goofy kid nmamed "Joe Perry", though I htink it's really some sort fo a pseudonym.

Now I understand your confusion, that was "Joe Perry" - I'm "JoePerry"

Oh, okay. This whole wine internet thing is so gnu to me...

Bob, We recently had a tasting of Catena Zapata with one of their wine makers (I'm sorry - I've lost the papers they printed out for us, but it's the pretty woman, a bit older than I am.... I hope Suvi doesn't read these pages ). I've been meaning to write up my TNs on them, but haven't gotten around to it.

But the Catena 2004 was on show that day. IMO it started out badly, with dill and vanilla - it seemed an oaky mess. But amazingly it cleared up with 20mins in the glass. From that point on it was meaty, with that typically Malbecian aroma of violets. Juicy but structured, it seemed a very nice wine for the price. I'm not much of a Malbec fan, but I think I might gladly drink a glass of this - maybe even two!

Welcome, Manuel, to Wine Ther...er... the WLDG! The best place on the internet to discuss Malbec, when the other best place to discuss Malbec is no more.

Joe....... has Wine Therapy gone kabut!! I can`t link up there anymore.

Otto.......seems your thoughts on the Catena Malbec are more positive than mine. Maybe I was having a bad day?!!

Spurred on by Bob's comments after my notes on the low priced but boring Malbec from Lurton, I resolved to look up-market. So I set out to the merchant from whom I have bought classical balanced wines from the reliable Weinert. Alas and Alack! That merchant no longer imports Weinert and offers instead Las Terrazzas. There were two Terrazzas' offerings, a basic (approx. EUR 9) and a reserve wine (approx EUR 18) but both displayed back labels vaunting their vanilla, cocoanut and caramel flavours and the cellarman, who also seemed to regret Weinert, confirmed that they were both heavily wooded and the latter strongly extracted. So I moved on to another merchant selling "prestige" wines.

Here I found the following, which was completely new to me -

MALBEC TUPUNGATO 2005 from Domaine JEAN BOUSQUET, Mendoza, made with organic grapes (approx EUR 8,50).

A very enjoyable wine with deep almost black colour and showing spicy aromas with notes of anis, nutmeg, liquorice, coffee and touches of leather. A good vigorous entry and mid palate, good body, grip mouth-feel and fill and fair length with some ripe, if a touch rustic, tannic structure but in a pleasing and honest way. Drinking well now and little ageing potential (which, in any case, the synthetic plastic stopper would rule out).

Much better than the Lurton and decent value.

I visited the Bousquet web-site. Jean comes from Carcassonne and, after labouring when young to produce wine in France, he emigrated to Mendoza and had established himself happily there for many years now.

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Excellent notes Tim, there is a new name for us fellow forumites. Bousquet....must find the website. A Malbec Hound reporting from Europe, great stuff!!

(edit) here we go...................

http://jeanbousquet.com.ar/newsite/historia_eng.htm