(TEL) Why Malbec Is Coming Home to France

[AKR]

Why Malbec Is Coming Home to France
2021-04-09 10:32:22.551 GMT


By Victoria Moore, Wine correspondent

(Telegraph) -- On my first visit to Argentina in the 1990s, over empanadas in
the sun, winemakers kept fretfully asking if I thought the country was making
a mistake, pushing so hard to make malbec its signature grape. Could a single
grape really be successful enough to sustain an entire industry?

Hindsight says a big, fat yes: Argentinian malbec became more loved and
popular than anyone dreamt possible. We buy it in supermarkets, we drink it in
pubs, and sommeliers in Michelin-starred restaurants complain their guests
want to order more of this (and sauvignon blanc) than of the obscure wines
they would prefer to sell them.

The thirst for the vibrancy and violet-and-damson-scent of malbec from
Argentina drove a planting frenzy. Today, Argentina doesn’t just have more
land planted with malbec grapevines than any other country in the world, it
has also increased the surface area of its malbec vineyards by 171 per cent
since 2000. Malbec originated in south-west France, where it provides the
famously tannic structure of the wines of Cahors, but it now has a South
American passport. There are 109,685 acres of malbec in Argentina today,
compared with just 16,842 acres in France, the world’s second-biggest malbec
producer, in 2015.

These figures are only a snapshot, though. The full story of what’s happening,
and what has been happening with malbec not just in Argentina but also around
the world, is more discursive and intriguing. World Malbec Day – recognised on
April 17 – marks the date in 1853 on which a landmark plan to transform
Argentina’s viticulture with an agronomy school and vine nursery was first
presented to government. Malbec arrived in Argentina 15 years later, in 1868,
pre-phylloxera, brought in by the French agricultural engineer Michel Pouget,
who ran those projects. Fast-forward a century, more or less, to the 1960s and
malbec had become the country’s most planted wine grape, with more than
143,000 acres – more than there is today – helping to slake the appetite of a
(very) thirsty domestic market.

What happened? Political unrest and instability and a huge fall in domestic
consumption (which halved), as a consequence of which “a 1980s vine-pull
scheme reduced the total vineyard area by a third, with malbec a specific and
dramatic casualty just before its potential was realised”, says The Oxford
Companion to Wine by Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding. By 1995, Argentina had
less than 25,000 acres of malbec. Its resurgence came about because of a
decision to build an export market. Malbec performs well in Argentina. While
neighbouring Chile had gone with cabernet sauvignon and other, better-known,
grapes, it also appealed as a variety that could potentially become truly
Argentina’s. You know the rest.

Of course, the story does not end here. Malbec thrives in California (3,850
acres) and its success in Argentina as a fruity, popular red has led wine
producers in other parts of the world to wonder if it could do well for them,
too.

In Chile, there has been a small flurry of malbec-planting – about 1,200 acres
have gone in over the past decade, increasing the Chilean malbec vineyard by
29 per cent – but this has stalled as Chile focuses on its heritage varieties,
such as país, and older vineyards. Idahue Estate Malbec 2018 Licanten, Chile
(14%, Corney & Barrow, £13.95) is superb, savoury and layered with a faint
edge like cocoa nibs.

Meanwhile, Australia had 1,389 acres of malbec in 2019 (with most of it in
Padthaway, Riverina and Langhorne Creek) and some larger producers have taken
an interest as a result of the popularity of malbec in Argentina. Also in
Australia, Wendouree, one of the country’s cult producers, makes wines using
malbec from vines in the Clare Valley that are more than 100 years old.

Perhaps even more interesting is what has been happening in France. In the
south-west, including in Cahors, some producers have begun to make a less
tannic, more juicy style of malbec in order to compete more directly with the
malbecs from Argentina.

But it’s to Bordeaux that we need to look for the next episode in the malbec
tale. Malbec was first planted there in the 18th century and became, in the
19th century, the most widely planted grape in the area. Then came phylloxera
and, over the decades that followed the area’s recovery from this, malbec’s
sensitivity to frost and coulure (poor fruit set) hastened its decline still
further until, by 2010, there were just 2,387 acres of malbec left in the
Gironde.

Yet now there is a mini malbec renaissance. In the past decade, Bordeaux’s
malbec vineyard has doubled, driven by the Côtes de Bourg appellation, which
is on the right bank next to the Côtes de Blaye. In the Côtes de Bourg, malbec
once occupied 80 per cent of the vineyard; now it is back up to 10 per cent
(compared with 2 per cent across Bordeaux). This rehabilitation has included a
10-year research programme to find the clone best suited to the soil and
climate (including trials with plant material from Argentina as well as
France).

Back to Argentina. If you’re after a super-cheap, juicy Argentinian malbec,
then Buenas Vides Argentinian Malbec 2019 (13.5%, Aldi, £4.49) will do the
job. But the malbec conversation has developed. The wines that originally made
the country’s name were thick and strong and ripe and oaky. The trend now is
for earlier-picking, more juicy styles. The talk is of terroir and regional
difference and single vineyards.

Also, Argentina is once again keen to talk about its other grape varieties.
One of Argentina’s most widely planted grapes is one you’ve probably never
heard of: cereza, a pink-skinned variety that is a crossing between listán
prieto (país in Chile; mission in California) and muscat of Alexandria. I have
been particularly impressed by the plushness of Argentinian cabernet franc.

The country also grows good chardonnay and makes pleasing, juicy wines from
the red bonarda grape. But more of those another time.

Wines of the week

Morrisons The Best Cahors Malbec 2018

France (13.5%, Morrisons, £8)

A modern rather than an age- for-30-years style of malbec from Cahors, this is
actually a blend of mostly malbec with 15% merlot. It’s fleshy and juicy and
fruity and rounded and smooth; all blueberries and bilberries. It’s also
unoaked and slips down very easily.

Gaudou Exception Malbec 2018

IGP Côtes du Lot, France (13%, Lea & Sandeman, £8.95/9.95 mixed case/single
bottle)

This is a malbec for those who love the savoury aspect of French wine. Made in
the Cahors region but declassified to give the owners more freedom over the
grape-growing and wine-making processes, it is very approachable but has a
pleasing earthy undertone. Real wine.

Luigi Bosca Malbec Single Vineyard 2018

Luján de Cuyo, Argentina (14.5%, Twelve Green Bottles Wine, £18.95)

From a family winery that can trace its origins to 1901, this is a beautifully
intense malbec from the region of Luján de Cuyo. It tastes of red fruit,
tobacco and spice. There’s also a Luigi Bosca cuvée in Waitrose – Luigi Bosca
Malbec Seleccion de Vistalba 2018 (£16.99).

[Claret]

I find the Argentine versions to pair well with grilled beef. I have not had Cahors since I was ITB and we sold Chateau Lagrezette.