hello and welcome to your new Bonner private wines video we’ve covered here a few great varieties in our wine video series over time like Cabernet Sauvignon ceramolo and Chardonnay to talk about their main characteristics and simply what they taste like which countries and regions make the best examples these sort of things but I realize I haven’t really made a dedicated video about what is probably our favorite grape variety here at the club especially when it’s from extreme altitude Vineyards and from Argentina of course I’m talking about
Mark Beck sure I’ve talked about it a few times here while talking about and tasting the wine gems that we regularly find for you and send you but let’s make sure today you get to know everything that you need to know about Malbec let’s go my fellow wine loving friends Julian here before we get started with the video there’s something that you have to know this video was made possible by the Bonner private wine partnership the reason I work with them is not just because it’s been called the most unique wine club in America might be part of the reason but because they truly love the wines that they choose and I do too you can check them out through the link in the video description and I’ll tell you more about them at the end of this video but let’s get into our works video for now Malbec is certainly most associated with Argentina when it comes
to Wine in fact Argentina and malbec almost synonymous and this is because as we’ll see in a moment when we talk about where else Malbec is grown well Argentina is by far now the biggest producer of Malbec in the world in fact if it wasn’t for Argentina Malbec would possibly have been completely forgotten about and gone by now you might have heard that the marble gray variety originates from France like most of the grapes that are grown internationally it is French originally what you might not have known is that it originated from Bordeaux the famous French wine region that also bred and gave us Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot Malbec is one of the five red grapes that is allowed to be Blended together or that are allowed to be Blended together to make bottle wine in what we call the traditional bottle blend you may have heard this expression in the U.S a lot call it Meritage but Malbec was never really
suited to the terroir of Bordeaux the soil is a little bit too rich for it there and the climate a little too cold for Malbec so Malbec vines in Bordeaux end up producing a lot of wine with high yields but making rather diluted ones that can be a little bit harsh and that is really not not compatible with the quality associated with Bordeaux wine on top of that during the 18th century The Vineyards of Bordeaux were decimated by a bug called phylloxera that was a huge historical viticultural crisis back then when they replanted after that most growers in Bordeaux didn’t replant Malbec because it wasn’t so good and they favored Cabernet and Merlot pragmatic people aren’t they if there was anything left of marbik there in the 20th century a huge Frost also destroyed many border Vineyards back in 1956 which
finished virtually eliminating Malbec entirely from The Vineyards of Bordeaux now a fun fact from history though while this marbic tragedy was unfolding in France a Frenchman a French agronomist named Michelle eme puje had been exiled from France after Napoleon did his famous coup d’etat taking over the country after the French Revolution so poujee couldn’t live live in France anymore or he couldn’t apply his viticultural in agricultural skills there so he immigrated to South America exiled he demonstrated his talent for Vine growing in South America and he immensely helped the development of viticulture in both Chile and Argentina and another mistake made by Napoleon but another one that turned out to be a good thing for the rest of the world as puje eventually introduced Malbec to Argentina to the famous region of
Mendoza where it was initially planted in Argentina from there it spread around and became Argentina’s Flagship grape grown everywhere around the country Napoleon and Argentina dead save mild egg you’ve tasted Mobic for yourself before a few times with the flower band we send you excellent and typical examples and that so you know what Malbec tastes like so I probably don’t need to elaborate a lot here but here are a few key features wine experts acknowledge broadly as being characteristics of this wine things to look out for if you also ever tasting blind and trying to recognize what grape variety this might be so the base of Malbec Aromas and flavors are on the fruity side obviously with those ripe Plum dark red berries the black
cherries the blueberry raisin a bit sometimes as well but there’s always with Malbec important background notes of cocoa and milk chocolate there’s a bit of coffee which generally a little Greener tones as well like green stems and I find blonde tobacco oven in it as well but what really stands out for me with Margaret and what we really can give it away when tasting blonde is what we call a sense of meatiness in on the palate there’s always some really discreet but real flavors of meat stock subtle but present in the background which give the wine some really juiciness some saltiness as well and it makes you salivate and enjoy the wine because there’s this additional layer tannins are dense and large with Malbec but generally not as densely compact a structure when you taste it as a Cabernet or Merlot there’s loads of tannins but they are rather big and a
little maybe looser than with some other grapes like Cabernet or syrup all of this renders mild bake wines really attractive and food friendly talking about food friendliness these characteristics give Malbec The Uncommon ability for a wine to pair well with foods that have a lot of umami flavors Umami is this flavored type that is found in some specific foods like mushrooms soy sauce cured meats or certain cheeses while some fruity ones struggle with this type of really Savory Umami flavors Malbec thrives absolutely thrives with this type of pairings so Malbec is overall a very versatile wine with Savory Foods and even with those slightly funky mushroomy dishes or cheeses or even with green vegetables which a lot of red wines don’t really always love going well finally you may
have noticed that Malbec wines are generally not all that Oaky and that’s because one the wine is by itself big and powerful so Uruk hardly ever overpowers the wine or you know yeah never you’d never feel it so strongly but also number two because winemakers don’t need to overdo it with Oakley flavors in Malbec it’s acknowledged generally that Oak does not improve Malbec all that much so why would you it could also be partly because in Argentina French Oak is extremely expensive to import and that’s in the end a good thing for the authenticity of the wines because they’re lit to speak for themselves oh [Music] Argentina is by far the largest producer of marde who is more than 75 000 Acres that are planted that’s a lot it’s hard to imagine but yes it’s a lot France
still makes some more big but for a reference they grow only 15 000 Acres of it so that’s five times less which is telling because France is often number one at a lot of things when it comes to Wine right but not for Malbec briefly in Argentina Malbec is grown well everywhere around the country which of course Mendoza is the biggest wine area in the country and the biggest producer of Malbec and it is located around the center of the country to the east now south of Argentina is Patagonia one of the southernmost wine regions in the world and they make rather crisp and fragrant Malbec there as well if you go a little north of Mendoza is what’s called San Juan that makes some nice ones as well but of course the best Malbec in Argentina come from the North and the province of Salter that is dear to our hearts especially when it’s grown at extreme altitude Vineyards as in Cafe
jate and the karchaki Valley now outside of Argentina Malbec is mainly grown in France where it is generally Blended rather anonymously in two red blends from the southwest of the country and the Lua Valley where Malbec shines for itself in France though is around a small village in the southwest that is not too far from Bordeaux relatively speaking called Carol what’s interesting is that because of the popularity of Argentine Malbec over the past 20 years or so the growing popularity the fame of Malbec from Argentina people also internationally started looking into the wines of kaor that were kind of forgotten about before on the international wine scene only the French knew about it but now everyone looks at them no one cared about Carol but now thanks to Argentina wine connoisseurs are curious to try a French Malbec and cow wines are good examples they are generally a little denser and tighter than the malbecs from Argentina because