-
Review: Malbado Luján de Cuyo Malbec (2019)
“Malbado” means “the bad one,” but this Mendoza Malbec actually wasn’t so bad. I pulled it from my strategic wine reserve (that is, the rack full of old Total Wine bottles) to uncork in the middle of a winter storm. Yes, this is a Total Wine private label wine with all the tell-tale signs: Big…
-
Costco Advent Calendar Wine #19: Mendoza Nights Malbec (Argentina)
Wine critics and wine judges have devised some entertaining shorthand terms for awful wine. Scrawled in the margins of a notebook or whispered under your breath to a colleague, they allow a taster to diss a wine without offending the pourer. Good ones that I’ve heard recently include FJ (“Fruit Juice”), TD (“Termite’s Dream”–meaning that…
-
Cheval des Andes tasting at Blind Bishop (Dallas, TX)
Malbec’s story is possibly the most poetic of all the grapes. From royal darling in the court of Eleanor of Aquitane, to trans-Atlantic pilgrim, to purple-hued hero of by-the-glass lists everywhere, this is a variety that has survived and thrived across centuries. France lost most of its Malbec plantings, first to phylloxera and then to…
-
Catena Zapata tasting at the Wine Authority (Richardson, TX)
The fine wine was Argentine at The Wine Authority on Thursday. We hustled over after work to taste six wines from the Catena family in a presentation led by South American wine specialist Jorge Liloy. Catena essentially created the market for Malbec, planting the first vines in 1902 and elevating a minor blending grape to…
-
The wines of South America (Total Wine class review)
Last night, my ass was in class for “Exploremos América del Sur” (Let’s Explore South America). This two-hour workshop is occasionally taught at Total Wine and focuses on the wines of Argentina and Chile. I tasted ten South American wines (four whites and six reds) from Total Wine’s Winery Direct lineup. In this post, I…
-
Mixing it up with Clos du Val’s blending seminar
It was a fab Cab lab at The Wine Authority this past Saturday. Napa Valley’s Clos du Val was in the house with barrel samples from the 2023 vintage–and one very special finished wine, the 2021 Yettalil blend ($200 retail). I booked the blending seminar for “educational” purposes. My wife (and fellow Cab lover) Sarah…
-
Under $12 Review: Ed Edmundo Red Blend (2020)
I am not now (nor have I ever been) “serious” about wine. Ew. Perish the thought. But at some point–and it wasn’t too long ago–there was a change. I got a little more…focused about wine. Or disciplined. Or perceptive. Something shifted, and I started paying more attention to what was in the glass. The result…
-
Review: Eccentric Malbec (2020)
Today, I’m sipping on a bottle that I found in my wine cabinet, Eccentric Malbec. It’s a value wine and it’s coming up on its 5th birthday this year–which by my house rules means, “Down the hatch!” My wife loves inky red wines and we used to never come home from the supermarket or wine…