Malbec: Spicy & Punchy (or is it?)
I have a soft spot in my heart for Malbec.
Before I loved (or even liked) wine, I would frequent a wine/beer bar with a good friend of mine who was determined to get me to like wine. His favorite wine was Malbec. I remember him loving how it is so “spicy,” he said.
Long story short, his love for Malbec became the gateway for me discovering, liking, and then loving everything about wine.
If Cabernet Sauvignon is known for its intense dark fruit and lingering tannins and Merlot is known for its supple, plummy fruit and velvety softness, I would say Malbec is known for its spicy, tangy punchiness.
I always imagine Cab Sauv and Merlot as old-fashioned waiters with white aprons and tea towels draped over their arms, while Malbec is a playful kick from someone’s packmule outside.
Ok, maybe not quite that aggressive, but you get the idea.
But, those are supreme generalizations and when it comes to how a wine tastes, what’s much more important than the grapes themselves is—place! In other words, where is that wine from?
In other words, terroir.
I’ll tell you more next week about how this applies to Malbec, but for now, get yourself primed on the concept of terroir.
What is terroir? What does it mean? Are you drinking grapes or are you drinking terroir? (The deep questions...) Read up on it here ➡️
Grape varietal doesn’t matter! Ok, ok. This isn’t 100% true. But, what is true is that where a wine is from (aka region, aka a wine’s terroir) is just as important, if not more important than the varietal.