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Friday, January 24, 2014

Wine Education: Malbec

Wine Tasting at all FOUR locations

January 25 from 11am-4pm.
(each store will also have other wines out to taste)

A little more education: We are going to try to feature either a grape or a wine region each week at our stores. We will give you some background information on the grape or region and feature a wine that highlights what we are featuring. We will taste that wine on Saturday at all four of our locations. We will post it here in our blog and send it out in our emails - click here to sign up for our emails

On our blog, click on the  label "Education" and you can read all of the education articles (see the right column under the heading "labels".


Grape: Malbec
Malbec is a black-skinned grape variety native to southern France (specifically the area around Cahors), but now better known as the icon wine grape of Argentina. Through its success in the vineyards of Mendoza, in a few short decades Malbec has shot from relative obscurity to international fame, simultaneously bringing new-found attention and respect to Argentina as a wine-producing nation.

Broadly speaking, French Malbec tends to be more meaty, rustic and tannic, while examples from Argentina seem to be uniformly rich, ripe, jammy and juicy. On both sides of the Atlantic, Malbec wines are generally aged in oak to enhance the wine’s structure and aging potential.

Malbec forms part of the Meritage blend in the United States, and has a strong presence in California. In Australia and New Zealand, it is frequently blended with the softer, less tannic Merlot, to produce bright, fruit-driven wines against a backbone of oak. Plums and violets are common flavor descriptors.


Come taste a few of our favorite Malbecs this weekend, including the fantastic 2012 Alfredo Rocca Malbec from Mendoza Argentina at all 4 locations

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