Malbec wine flourishing in Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza, Argentina, is referred to there as “the Birthplace of Malbec,” though it almost certainly is not.
The vine was popular in Bordeaux long before anyone in Patagonia was cultivating grapes. Nonetheless, it has found a home here, and that is thanks to a mid-19th century regional governor, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, who requested that the French agronomist Miguel Pouget bring some cuttings of selected French vines to be planted in Mendoza.
The particular clone he chose produces smaller, tighter bunches and less tannic wine than the Malbecs still grown (primarily as a blending grape) back in France. Its true forbearer probably was rendered extinct by the Phylloxera epidemic in the 1880s. Once a popular and accepted grape among the Crus of Bordeaux, it fell out of favor there in the 1950s when the whole crop was killed by frost. It remains in the vineyards of southern France, and sparsely in the Loire, to this day.
In Mendoza, though, it has thrived, and there are now more than 120,000 acres planted to the variety in that region alone. One in particular has caught my attention recently, called Inacayal. The name is taken from the leader of the Tehuelche, the last native tribe to resist European dominance in Patagonia. The “Conquest of the Desert” was completed when Inacayal surrendered in 1884. Oddly, upon his death four years later, his skeleton and brain were put on display as anthropological curiosities.
The Inacayal vineyard is located on a high plateau near Lujan de Cuyo, just south of the city of Mendoza, and a perilous trek due east across the Andes from Santiago, Chile. Elevated about 3,200 feet above sea level, its soils are clay loam, and they enjoy just the kind of hot days and cool nights that are perfect for the Malbec grape.
Under the watchful eye of the legendary Italian-born winemaker Adriano Senetiner and his protégé Alejandro Rojas, these grapes are able to shine with the unique terroir of the region.
Rich, velvety and complex, it carries the traditional bouquet of plums and chocolate, with a long-developing palate of blackberry jam and cocoa and just a hint of vanilla. It weighs in at a not-insignificant $25 a bottle; $270 a case, but is well worth it, especially with steak-grilling season upon us. And if there’s one thing besides making Malbec that the Argentines know how to do well, it’s apply fire to beef.
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