My sister’s father-in-law says he likes Malbec and it’s his birthday in a few weeks, and she would like to bring a nice bottle to their dinner at the restaurant.
I am not that knowledgeable about mid-range to high-end Malbecs. Anybody have any recommendations for a decent bottle?
-Alex
There are some cool ones outside of Argentina
Some of my favorites
Ladera (probably not distributed but you should be able to order from their site)
Chateau de Mercues Icone Cahors (I carried this when I worked at Spec’s, beautiful bottle shape, one foot in modern-one foot in tradition style)
Chateau de Mercues (their ‘classic’ bottling, around $25 or so, much better than anything from Argentina at that price)
Cierro y Tierra Celador (good one from Argentina that’s not overdone or syrupy)
Chateau Le Cedre
Robert Young makes a great, big Malbec! Epic. Iron fist in a velvet glove.
Alpha Omega makes a great one, as well.
Silverado and Miner Family do a great job, too.
To round out my list, I’d add Arrowood and Chateau St. Jean!
Zorzal “Eggo” and Gen del Alma “JiJiJi” (50% Malbec/50% Pinot Noir) from the Tupungato region of Argentina are fresh, light.
Catena’s $20-ish “Catena” Malbec is solid, and the “Alamos” is sound ($10), as is the Terrazes de los Andes.
Maipe is a jammy version, as is the Kaiken, but with more oak.
I would be interested to know what Washington state Malbec wines are good values…
BTW, Catena goes all the way up to $100+ per bottle for the higher tier.
From CA I highly recommend Lagier-Meredith and Cester’s Anvil.
Step it up for the FIL- achaval ferrer finca altamira
What Peter said…
I’ve enjoyed:
Vina cobos bramare (paul hobbs)
Capataz (darioush)
I’m going to with this slightly higher-end malbec, and I think I found a decent deal. Thanks for all the help!
Glad you found something AlexO. It is very difficult to find some of the better ones. I like the 2009 Gimenez Riili Gran Rseserva and the 2010 Caelum Reserva Malbec which strangely enough seems to be available at the Wine Poste in Oak Cliff. Both are excellent wines from smaller producers.
the achaval ferrer Altamira is a great wine- I’m sure he’ll love it- imo really satisfies wine geeks and non geeks alike- I’d drink it even more if it was cheaper!
That is a terrific wine but for 1/3 the price Flying Trout in W2 makes enjoyable and worthy Malbec.
Another vote for Lagier Meredith.
Alex, get a good cab or syrah and an old Malbec label to swap onto the bottle
Malbec drinker will be non the wiser as Malbec is blah at best and at least you can have a nice wine
+1 for Lagier Meredith. For a much different style, La Sirena just released its first Malbec as well.
based on your palate, this is easy: devil proof.
There isn’t one. I have tried very hard. I once tried over 20 different Argentinian Malbecs at a trade tasting and the best I could do was, lets say, 85 points for $95.
EXCEPT for Cahors. They are hard to find in New York, for reasons I do not understand, but I had a very nice Cahors Malbec at a restaurant in Quebec City that was inexpensive. I suspect that your father-in-law likes the earthy kick of the Argentinian Malbecs, which seem to be all the rage among my civilian friends these days, so Cahors is not really the right flavor profile, but it is worth a try.
You AFWE types are so hard to please.