Argentina offers fantastic Malbecs across all price ranges, from value choices to fine wines. Ahead of Malbec Day on the 17th April, here is a selection of 18 top bottles chosen by the Decanter team from recent tastings.<\/p>\n
A hand holds a bunch of Malbec grapes in a vineyard
\nHarvesting Malbec at Bodega Argento’s Altamira Vineyard
\nHighlightsTastings Home
\nThere used to be a standard clich\u00e9 of Argentinian Malbec. Great with steak, obviously. Plenty of black and red plum fruit, usually with a baked or syrupy edge. Alcohol starting at 14% and edging up further to 16%. \u2018I\u2019ve tasted 16.5% \u2013 you cannot finish the glass, let alone the bottle,\u2019 notes Patricio Tapia, author of the influential Desorchados guide to Argentinian, Chilean and Uruguayan wines.<\/p>\n
\u2018Those wines were part of a commercial boom in Argentina,\u2019 says Tapia. But while Argentinian Malbec has effectively become a \u2018brand\u2019 in its own right, now a staple feature on wine lists around the world, the wines have evolved.<\/p>\n
\u2018The change has been apparent in Mendoza, the vineyard in the desert,\u2019 he adds. \u2018Producers are investing in the Uco Valley to the west, beyond Luj\u00e1n de Cuyo, chasing higher altitudes, wider diurnal temperature ranges and different soils (above all, limestone). Gualtallary, Altamira and La Consulta are the among the small sub-zones that are gaining international fame.\u2019<\/p>\n
New technology\u2026 old vines<\/p>\n
In the vineyard viticulturists are both looking forward with new technology and looking back to the heritage of their old vines. \u2018Careful work on row orientation and viticulture is bringing in fresher fruit,\u2019 explains Tapia, which in turn leads to fresher, lower-alcohol wines.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Luj\u00e1n de Cuyo, wineries are focusing on the benefits of their old vines. \u2018The region\u2019s oldest vines are often planted on their own roots, with great genetic diversity from centuries of massal selections and mutations, giving them a distinctive character,\u2019 says Amanda Barnes, DWWA judge and author of The South America Wine Guide.<\/p>\n
\u2018In general terms, however, Luj\u00e1n Malbecs are typically rounder and broader on the palate, with riper black- and red-fruit flavours than the fresher, floral style of Uco Valley, but more chiselled than the jammier wines of Maip\u00fa,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
There have also been changes in winemaking. \u2018In the winery, there\u2019s a welcome movement to reduce oak and replace new barrels with old oak and large foudres. Significantly, the new generation is investing in concrete,\u2019 says Tapia. A symbol is Zuccardi\u2019s Uco Valley winery, opened in 2016 and designed to reflect the surrounding the rocky landscape, which Sebastian Zuccardi has filled with concrete eggs and amphorae.<\/p>\n
A sense of place<\/p>\n
\u2018Malbec is our main red grape and the market knows Malbec. But I encourage consumers to keep on tasting Malbec from different origins in Argentina. It is very perfumed and fruity but also can be quite austere, still with a lot of character on the palate,\u2019 adds Paz Levinson, DWWA Regional chair for Argentina 2022.<\/p>\n
\u2018It is impressive how Malbec can be a transparent grape\u2026 it shows the place very well. Today we can identify different terroirs while tasting and have a deep understanding of the great wines Argentina is making,\u2019 she adds.<\/p>\n
Clearly there has never been a better time to explore Argentinian Malbec. The bottles below should offer some drinking inspiration. And the best part? Malbec from Argentina still makes a fantastic wine pairing with steak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina offers fantastic Malbecs across all price ranges, from value choices to fine wines. Ahead of Malbec Day on the 17th April, here is a selection of 18 top bottles chosen by the Decanter team from recent tastings. A hand holds a bunch of Malbec grapes in a vineyard Harvesting Malbec at Bodega Argento’s Altamira […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/domainebousquet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}