Wednesday, July 16, 2003

More on Argentinian Malbec

For some reason when I talk about beer I seem to get more comments than when I talk about wine. I don't know why that is. In any event, in Sainsburys today I found another Argentinian Malbec, this one from Bodega Norton in Mendoza. The bottle has quite a fancy label of a couple dancing the tango, which appears to move when you look at it from a different direction, which would suggest to me that this winemaker is very keen on the idea of exports. This slightly frivolous touch was almost enough to put me off buying the wine, as they are clearly aiming at casual supermarket buyers rather than pretentious gits like myself.

However, I bought it anyway. Its was a five pound bottle of wine rather than a four pound bottle (as was the last one) and I think its slightly higher price was relected in the quality. Still not much of a nose (although what nose it had was a little like that of a merlot). Once again the wine was very young, vintage 2002, but was quite open and ready to drink. The wine was a little less jammy than the first one - the fruit was slightly more solid. Again, a good wine for the price, but not much complexity. I am still yet to be convinced that Argentinian Malbec is one of the great wines of the world, or the Malbec is a truly noble grape variety. Obviously, though, I shall be continuing the research.

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