Have you ever ordered a bottle of wine at a restaurant only to be intimidated when the waiter opened it tableside and handed you the cork? You shouldn’t allow such an innocuous event to create an anxiety attack.
Take the cork and sniff it to see if it contains any unpleasant odors. Then take the glass that was just poured, look at the color of the wine and taste it. If it tastes good, let the waiter know the wine is acceptable.
The more difficult part of ordering a bottle of wine is finding a bargain on the restaurant’s wine list. I believe that one of the more reasonably priced varietals available today is a Malbec.
Malbec wines are known for their dark inky color, and the wine can have a significant amount of tannins, thus making them very good to blend with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The Malbec grape is one of those that is commonly blended to make Bordeaux-style wines. In Argentina, Malbec is a very widely planted grape and there are a number of value-based wines on the market at the present time.
I recently tasted three Malbec wines from Mendoza, Argentina, ranging in price from $9 to $19: a 2006 Catena, 2007 Alamos and 2007 Nieto. Each of these wines were pleasant to drink, but I thought they all tasted much better with food. These wines should be easy to find.
The 2006 Catena is made of grapes from the Vista Flores appellation of Mendoza and is produced by a family that first planted Malbec in that region in 1902. This wine paired very well with mussels steamed in white wine with garlic, parsley and scallions as an appetizer; it tasted even better with short ribs that were roasted with onions over an open fire. The fat from the ribs helped bring out the flavor of dark berries and caused the wine to feel somewhat smooth in the mouth.
The 2007 Alamos is also produced by the Catena family and this wine paired nicely with a red sauce served over penne pasta. I could immediately detect the aroma of plum and found this wine to be slightly peppery with hints of raspberry.
The last wine tasted was the 2007 Nieto, which was earthy on the nose. It took this wine about 30 minutes to open up — meaning that at first the wine’s flavors are not real evident, but over time they become more noticeable. Once open, the dark fruit flavors and earthiness of this wine became very pronounced. It was delicious with a very basic roasted chicken dish.
Malbecs’ tannins cause that dry-mouth feel common in many red wines. Generally, tannins come from the grape skins and are a natural preservative that allows wine to age. When you read a wine critic’s comment that a particular wine has “tight tannins,” he is referring to a young wine that is concentrated and should age well. But a wine with “tight tannins” creates a very dry-mouth feel, and doesn’t taste great when it is young.
Jim Rawe, a family attorney in Bradenton, is an avid collector of fine wines. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at jimrawe@gmail.com.
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