Malbec World Day!
Just a few days ago, we celebrated Tannat Day. Today, we celebrate another South American immigrant, Malbec.
Like Tannat, Malbec hails from France but has truly found its voice in Argentina, and Wine of Argentina likes to celebrate this holiday in style!
This year will be the 13th Edition of this holiday! They like to celebrate with the hashtag #MalbecArgentino.
The Black Wine of Cahors
Malbec hails from Cahors, a region in Southwest France. There, it is known as “Cot.” It does have a flashier name, “The Black Wine of Cahors.” It was a wine so dark that you could not see your fingers through the glass. The region sits along the winding river Lot. (And when I say winding…well, it really is!)
Cahors – Malbec from along the winding river Lot
A while back, we did a tasting with a trio of wines from Cahors.
https://www.crushedgrapechronicles.com/cahors-malbec-along-the-winding-river-lot/
Here is a bit on the region that we shared at that time!
“This region sits in the south west of France about 100 miles east of Bordeaux in the Midi-Pyranees and is divided by the Lot river that does a half a dozen or more “S” curves through the area. The original home of Malbec, here it is often known as Côt or Auxerrois. First planted by the Romans, the Englishmen named the wine from this area “The Black Wine of Cahors”. It is said that if you can see your fingers through the glass, it’s not from Cahors. At one time widely known throughout the wine world, the 100 years war and later phylloxera dampened it’s growth.
The country side here is out of a storybook with villages perfect for biking, boating on the river and hot air ballooning. It is also home to many Michelin starred chefs, due in no small part to the abundance of truffles in the region. The annual truffle festival early each year brings people from far and near to bid on truffles from vendors walking the street. The region is also noted for chestnuts, wild mushrooms, foie gras, goose, duck and walnuts. All of these things play beautifully with the local wine.”
Malbec makes its way to Argentina
It was the mid-19th century when Cot came to Argentina.
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was the President of Argentina at the time and hired an agronomist, Michel Aimé Pouget, to bring French vine cuttings to Argentina.
Argentinian Malbec
We did a tasting with an Argentinian Malbec last year from Domaine Bousquet.
Domaine Bousquet 2021 Reserve Malbec From their vineyard in the Gualtallary Valley that sit at over 4000 feet. This wine was Organic, but the vineyards are now Regenerative Organic Certified!
We paired it with a strip steak cooked with a savory chocolate sauce.
Argentinian Malbec to celebrate World Malbec Day and Earth Day
Malbec Nouveau
We had a fascinating Malbec last year. It was a Malbec Nouveau, made like Beaujolais Nouveau in the carbonic maceration style.
Lighter in body than a typical Malbec and more fruit-forward, this wine had candied tones, notes of raspberry and cherry, floral and herbal notes like thyme and tarragon, and a bit of spice.
We paired Seared Ahi with a berry, balsamic, tea & hibiscus gastric, and roasted golden beets.
Convenient Malbec
in an aluminum can!
Perfect for a Picnic!
Domaine Bousquet’s Origin Organics, does a 100% Malbec in their Le Petit Verre line in a can that we enjoyed with a backyard picnic.
Canned wines from Argentina – Convenience and flavor for a backyard picnic
Malbec in California and Oregon
You will also find Malbec in California and Oregon!
I had a lovely discussion a few years back with Leah Jorgensen about her Malbec. She told us that when it is fermenting, it smells like blueberry pie!
Leah Jorgensen, Are you baking blueberry pie? Nope, that’s my Malbec
Flavors and Pairings
Malbec typically has blackberry, cherry, cocoa, baking spice, cherry cola, blueberry compote, vanilla, and plum flavors.
Pairing it with Steak just makes sense. Argentina is known for its cattle ranches and its Gauchos. It is great with BBQ, mushrooms, blue cheese burgers, peppers…
One more…Dessert Malbec
Visiting Southern Oregon, we tasted a Trella Vineyards Barrel One, Malbec Dessert Wine, from the Umpqua Valley. This was a port style wine aged 3 years in barrel and another 6 in bottle prior to release!
We paired it with dessert, a Chocolate brownie with black cherry compote (with cloves and nutmeg) bleu cheese in sweetened ricotta with crushed pistachios.
I know…blue cheese in a brownie? I love blue cheese and chocolate, the salty savory with the dark sweet chocolate. This was pretty delicious.
Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine and WSET 3 Certified. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.
When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.
Check out our book series, “Tempting Spoonfuls” available through Amazon!
Inspired by the flavors and aromas in wines, these books create “tempting spoonfuls” of flavors to pair with wines.
“Tempting Spoonfuls – Pairing single bites with glorious wines” – Our first book paired wines from boutique wineries on the west coast, in California, Oregon, and Washington, with delicious spoonfuls.
This book is 60 pages, 18 recipes, lots of beautiful photos, and insights into some fantastic small wineries!
“Tempting Spoonfuls – small bites paired with wines from around the Globe” – This book takes us around the globe to explore 12 wine regions, a wine from the region, and then gives you a recipe for a pairing!
A slightly larger book at 104 pages, this time you learn about pairing with a type of wine from a region. Rather than a specific bottle, you can look for a style of wine from a region and feel confident that it will go well with the recipe pairing we provide. We give you 12 recipes, each to pair with a wine.
The goal is to make your mouth water and encourage you to create your own “Tempting Spoonfuls.”
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