Malbec recs

[AleisterCrowley]

Any recommendations for a decent 'supermaket' Malbec?
I know nothing about it other than most seem to be Argentinian
It's a small gift so top end of £15/btl
I've seen Argento around a lot - reasonable ?

[Hallucigenia]

Not specifically, but as a general comment. I went to a big Argentine tasting a few years ago (I reported it on TMF, ah here we are - really 7 years ago? http://boards.fool.co.uk/c244t-a-lot-of ... 86242.aspx) and it was striking how consistently good the £8-11 reservas were but how they struggled to control the balance on the premium ones. Exchange rates and demand will probably have pushed those prices up towards the kind of thing you were thinking of, and I suspect they've learnt to control the premium ones a bit better now, but it's something to bear in mind.

Argento has always struck me as a Doom Bar equivalent - competent enough but a bit dull. To be honest, I suspect you'll struggle to get any kind of decent premium malbec in a supermarket (except perhaps M&S/Waitrose). I would have said your best bet would be getting to the wine shop at the Gaucho off Piccaddilly, but I haven't been there for a while and looking at their website it looks like they may be online only now?? Might be worth popping by if you're in the area.

Otherwise, on the basis that when someone says they like "malbec", they're really saying they like sweetish, rich wines without too much tannin, you might be better off with supermarket amarone which comes in around that price. Or go to Cahors which is the original home of malbec where it's known as Côt - again a good one might be a bit too specialist, although I'd probably trust the Waitrose one at £9 - but it probably won't taste like the Argentine malbec that they are thinking of.... Depends whether they're interested in learning more about the grape or just want something nice to drink.

[AleisterCrowley]

Cheers Hallucigenia

Argento has always struck me as a Doom Bar equivalent
Well, that's put me off!

I have a specific request for Malbec so I'll go with something that says Malbec on the label (yes, I know it's a grape!)
I'll read your review , and have a trawl round Tanner's when I get home later this week
https://www.tanners-wines.co.uk/wines/malbec

Compliments of the Season
AC
PS I have a bottle of your eponymous gruit in the rack here which I picked up last Christmas. Probably WAYYY past its best now, but let me know if you're attending any future Lemon Fool socials and you can have it for novelty value!

[MaraMan]

I highly recommend this one:

http://www.decanter.com/reviews/argenti ... mico-2015/

MM

[BrummieDave]

I would strongly recommend avoiding Malbec at all as I find it inferior, even at its relatively low cost (which seems its primary attraction), to just about any other wine. But hey, that's why we're all different.

[Hallucigenia]

There's plenty of cheaper wines, the attraction is that malbec has bags of fruit, quite a bit of sugar and not too much challenging tannin. It and primitivo are about as close as red wine gets to alcopops.

PS @AC, we must do gruit some time! I'd even got you a bottle of Plum Porter in exchange, before you'd had it. However, I have now had PP Grand Reserve....

[AleisterCrowley]

Well, I'm back home so had a chat with chap in local Tanners today and bought his recommendation;
GOUGUENHEIM FLORES DEL VALLE BLUE MELOSA 2012
https://www.tanners-wines.co.uk/gouguen ... ndoza-2012
Tanner's staff are very helpful and (as far as a wine idiot like me can tell) very knowledgeable. Worth a visit if you are near one of their shops in the Marches/Wales

@Hal - apparently (so my beer expert mate says) the H. Gruit was a bit 'challenging' (to paraphrase) - with yarrow, juniper berries, mugwort, and wormwood. I'm a bit worried that a year in the bottle will have turned it into something suitable for cleaning limescale off a boiler, or enamel from teeth. If we don't get a Lemon Social organised in early 2017 I could post it, but a journey via Royal Mail may be the 'final insult' to it. Don't want it exploding in a postie's sack, leaving him reeking of yarrow...