Malbec

Malbec is a dark-skinned red grape with thick skins and firm tannins, originally from south-west France around Cahors. It is now the most planted red grape in Argentina, where it has become a defining variety, and it is also important in Chile and in several other wine regions.

History

The grape is traced to the old province of Quercy, near Cahors, where it was known as côt. It arose from a cross between magdeleine noir de Charentes, a table grape widespread in the Middle Ages, and prunelard, an old variety from Gaillac that can still be found there.

The name by which it is known today is associated with Monsieur Malbeck, who introduced it at Sainte-Eulalie d'Ambarès in the Gironde department. In Bordeaux it was earlier called pressac. Its exact origin remains debated: the ampelographer Pierre Galet considered côt the original name and suggested northern Burgundy as a possible home, a view supported by the synonym auxerrois.

In Bordeaux it was a major blending grape, contributing colour and fruit, but it lost ground to merlot and cabernet franc. The 1956 frost destroyed much of its vineyard, and plantings in the Libournais fell from 4,900 hectares in 1968 to 1,400 hectares in 2000. In Cahors, by contrast, it was replanted and remained the main variety, often blended with merlot and tannat.

The grape reached the Americas in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1853 the French agronomist Michel Pouget brought vines to Argentina at the request of governor Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and these included the first malbec plantings in the country. In Chile, where it had arrived in 1841, it was mixed with other varieties for decades until old vines were rediscovered. From the 1990s onward it was promoted as a varietal wine in Argentina, Chile and California.

Culture

In Argentina, malbec occupies a central place in the national identity of wine. After the economic crisis of the twentieth century, some plantings were uprooted to make room for jug-wine varieties, but at the end of that century the industry returned to it for premium wines and exports. Today it is almost synonymous with Argentine wine, and Mendoza holds most of the area, around 87%.

Argentine wines are usually described as fruity, deep in colour and velvety in texture, with riper tannins than those of Cahors. Growing at high altitude has become especially prized, with vineyards at the foot of the Andes in Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley, and in Salta in the north-west, where some of the highest vineyards in the world are found. The Luján de Cuyo appellation in Mendoza is considered the first controlled designation of origin in the Americas for this grape.

In Cahors, malbec grows on limestone soils and produces dark, tannic wines. The AOC rules require at least 70% of the grape in the blend. In Chile, its recent rise rests on century-old vines rediscovered in Maule and Biobío, and on fresher wines shaped by the coast and the mountains.

Outside Europe and South America, malbec is grown in California, where it is used in Bordeaux-style blends and meritage, and in states such as Washington, Oregon and Virginia, as well as in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In Spain it is rare; about 22 hectares are in the Ribera del Duero DO, mostly used in blends with tempranillo.

Trivia