Good morning all. Hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend.

Simon’s Wine of the Week is Cepas Malbec

After last week’s somewhat unusual choice of a White Malbec I’ve decided to focus on it’s more conventional and much better-known cousin, red Malbec. We tasted this wine a couple of weeks ago as a sample and were blown away. It’s fast becoming one of my go-to Argentinian Malbecs in the range as it certainly delivers a hell of a lot for the price.

As I touched on last week, Malbec is synonymous with Argentina with most of the world’s plantings in the country, but the fame of the grape means it is gaining favour all across the globe. It’s even becoming popular again in France, its original homeland. Plantings of Malbec were devastated by the severe 1956 frost which killed off 75% of the vines in Bordeaux but the reputation of the grape in Argentina means a new lease of life for Malbec. At one point Malbec was grown all over France which may account for why the grape has over 1,000 synonyms.

The wine is an absolute cracker for the price. On the nose it is lovely and warming, with very bright fruit, lots of lovely dark blueberry and blackberry, hints of cloves, and real intensity that jumps out of the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with lots of delicious sweet fruit, more blueberry and blackberry, but there’s raspberry and black cherry too. There’s a touch of spice for complexity, soft tannins, and it all ends with a whack of sweetshop on the finish.

With Argentinian Malbec on nearly every wine list in the country you really need one to stand out and this certainly does. Perfect with a steak, it’s also smooth enough to pour a glass and drink on its own.

Have a great week,
Simon