Lo Tengo Malbec
Wine: Lo Tengo Malbec.
Grape: Malbec
Region: Mendoza, Argentina
Vintage: 2009
Price: $8.99
In the glass: Lo Tengo Malbec is a deep semi-opaque crimson-red color with a firm red to slightly garnet rim definition and medium-high viscosity.
On the nose: There is an immediate pepper-infused crushed black cherry scent with spices, blackberry foliage, tobacco box, smoky oak references and earthy minerals underlying.
On the palate: The wine is medium-bodied with loads of spicy black fruit components, smoke character, peppercorns, spice box, tobacco and some phenolic licorice notes. The midpalate is fine with good tannin structure, and the finish is a pleasant, lingering one with just a touch of wild cherry juice on it. Lo Tengo Malbec is a wonderfully rounded, yet spicy wine that is well-made and highly recommended.
Odds and ends: Argentina is the world's fifth-largest wine-producing nation and has one of the highest per capita wine-consumption rates in the world, which is why only a small quantity of its affordable and highly drinkable wine makes its way to the United States. The Mendoza province produces about 70 percent of the country's wine, but about 85 percent of its quality labels. Lo Tengo Malbec -- literally meaning "the tango," as an homage to the famous dance -- comes from the huge wine company Bodegas Norton. The winery is owned by the Austrian Swarovski family, most famous for its crystal line of premiums.
The Malbec grape is a French import that has proven to be extremely successful in this country and climate. While the grape has been almost completely phased out in Bordeaux, France, it thrives in Argentina and gives us the pleasure of buying these wines at really reasonable prices. Try this wine with a chargrilled rib-eye steak and some roasted potatoes. It should drink well through 2013.
Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89016-0749, or e-mail him at gil@winevegas.com.
