A beverage breakthrough for neo-neocon
Congratulate me, folks. Even though I’m basically a party-pooper nondrinker, I have finally found a wine I like.
It’s called “Malbec” and is primarily from Argentina:
In France it is generally a grape used for blending, with very little vine being devoted to its improvement or success. The story in Argentina is quite the opposite. Malbec has found renewed acclaim and initial glory in the sun-drenched climate of Argentina. This is Argentina’s signature grape and it is quickly making a new name for itself with red wine lovers….Malbec is typically a medium to full-bodied red wine. Ripe fruit flavors of plums and blackberry give it a jammy characteristic. The tannins are typically a bit tight and the earthy, wood-like appeal makes for a fairly rustic wine.
Well, I guess I like my wines rustic, earth, and jammy. Who knew?
Malbec’s great! I snapped up a bunch of bottles at Trader Joe’s for $3 apiece.
really? a good reason to visit new Trader Joe opened in Brooklyn
If you appreciate rustic conservative principles, and your personality is earthy and jammy, then maybe liking this wine is no accident. Potential blog subtitle:
NEO-NEOCON: Rustic, Earthy, and Jammy
Sounds like it goes perfectly with jello molds!
Neo, you may also like Cahors if you like Malbec… Give it a try!
Grapes and wines made from them are interesting things. A grape that may be mediocre when grown in one region may shine when grown in another. Such is the case with Malbec and that is why I favor Tempranillo (another red you might like, Neo) from Spain rather than other countries. Even some grapes that do well almost anywhere rise to greatness in certain regions – like Marlborough (New Zealand)Sauv Blancs So I don’t Malbec hit it’s stride until they began cultivating it in Argentina. Malbec like Cab and Zin benefit from breathing a bit longer than lighter reds. I find a least an hour to get all the nuance and flavor (geez I sound like a wine snob and I am not I assure one and all).
Anyway – glad you found one you like. Not too much better than taking a sip of wine and having an Archimedes moment (Eureka [I have found it])
Chilean wines are very good. I like a German wine called Riesling Schmitt Sohn. It’s a white wine that is a tad sweet (I don’t like dry wines). I like to taste the fruit in the wine, so I prefer reds, but a Riesling is very fruity.
Neo, don’t tell me that the real reason you visited France was to search for a wine you liked?
Jammy? Is that something like reconstituted grape jelly? I’m so glad this is not a pretentious blog…
When I worked in Salta the common wine was a dry fruity white wine from Cafayate, which at the time cost about $4 a jug. Good wine.
In the previous post, I assumed that readers knew those places are in Argentina.
Cool! I mostly prefer reds, so I will have to try this one. Have a holly, jolly Christmas, Happy Hannukah (sp?), or whatever your particular flavor of “peace on Earth and goodwill towards men” is. (Should I spout the legalese of not meaning to be exclusionary to feminists, lesbians, or those of any of a variety of religious faiths? Nah. What a world we live in when a simple gesture of goodwill can be deemed so evil.)
neo-One nice thing about Malbecs is that they are relatively inexpensive. Unlike Cabernets, for example, I have also noticed less of a difference between a $12 Malbec, and a $40 Malbec. However, I haven’t tried more than 5 or 6 of them, so take that last bit with a grain of salt–figuratively, that is.
I’m quite fond of the Niagara grape… 😉
Be careful, neo. First Malbec, then MD 20 20.
Neo–
Listen to Dane. I worked in a liquor store for a year and when I tasted a tempranillo, I was a believer. It’s red wine for people who shy away from red wine. It hits your mouth with all the power of a robust California red, full of sunshine and earth and fruit, and when you swallow it, velvet. Smooth, without the acidity or tannins that drove me away from reds.
I would recommend the tempranillo at the liquor store each time someone was looking for a red wine with a sort of worried look on their face. I’d describe it just as I did above, and the worried look would go away. Best thing about that particular wine? $7 a bottle. You absolutely do not have to spend a lot of money to get a good bottle of wine.
The good Malbec and the Tempranillo offer a lot of the smooth complexity that good Pinot Noirs do for a fraction of the price – at least for now. As with most good things when the demand catches up to the supply the price will rise.
Well, I am mostly a humble foot soldier in the Great American Craft Beer Revolution, but I may try this, Neo, although I am very fussy about my wine: I won’t touch it if it’s not at least three days old.
Malbec is the only wine I drink with beef. Those Argentines know their stuff. It’s like steak in a glass.
Interesting factoid: Argentina produces more wine than Italy, but only started exporting a few years ago. Before that, they drank it all themselves!
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Good for you Neo.
Dane was onto a good point. This grape just might not come out as well in Europe and/or France. Got your weather, irrigation practices, soil (which breaks into a ton of variables itself), et cetera….
Same deal with other plants. Grow an onion in a place with low sulfur and it comes out sweet instead of strong. Grow a Hungarian pepper in Hungary and it has flavor while in the US it tastes like a bell pepper (re: nothing)…
Hmm, sounds good. I do like wine, though I have no idea as a sampler. I either like it or not. I rarely sense the plum, or black cherry, or whatever, and I often disagree with what the “pro’s” like, to a degree. Still, I love to see a real human find something interesting and pass that along. I will have to see if I can find such a wine.
You peaked my curiosity. Thanks! I might have to try a tempranillo too. Foods and drink are so fun to explore. Once in a while something special, if only for a while, is found. Thanks again.
I think the same people that sit around and write the descriptions for the wines are the same people that dream up pint color names – a lot of time they bear no relation to what they look (or taste) like but they sound appealing. I’m the same as doom – if I like it I will drink it. I continue on my quest to find the best bottle of wine under $10. The great thing about this is that it constantly changes. Again the law of supply and demand. A bottle currently at $7 will be over $10 next year if it is good – but there are always new contenders entering the marketplace. Granted I end up with some bottles here or there that I take a sip of and relegate the rest to my next recipe that calls for some red or white (unless it is the rare bottle that I use instead of Draino). Still it is fun and not too expensive and I have made some wonderful discoveries along the way.
with all the alcohol delivery systems there is bound to be one that someone would like…
its like dirty underwear politics… keep throwing it at the wall and eventually you will find something sticks.
Try some of the reds from Washington State. Beats California hands down.
How nice it is to have been ahead of the Eastern crowd, when the value of an ignored, merely West coast selection has been discovered. A few years ago, I had been telling my few friends who appreciated wine, in this still-civilizing western town, that Argentinian Malbec was a steal of a treat!
Trader Joe’s had not too long before extended its outposts from trend-creating California into this rustic, neighboring territory. When I saw cheap (yes, cheap!) Argentinian Malbec on the shelf, I thought of stories of the vineyards of the desertic eastern slopes of the Andes that had been told to me by a close Argentinian friend. One trial convinced me; it’s not a really heavy red, but a beautifully brisk and full taste, as I should have expected from the informant.
But beware, as others have correctly mentioned, provenance seems to be everything, down to the label (winery). I prefer the “El Portillo” label; I have yet to find a better Chilean label, though I prefer their politics.
Hmm, have a bottle of Malbec sitting in my wine rack right now. Picked it up fairly cheap a couple of months back without really knowing what it was, but I’d never tried Argentine wine before so I figured what the heck. Now, I’m looking forward to trying it. Tomorrow at (Christmas) dinner.