Malbec love story a tale of grape expectations

Everything these days seems to have its own “Day” – and malbec is no exception. I’m flagging this up early just in case you want to mark it in your own way this year. It’s on April 17. Argentina’s wines may lag behind those of Chile in the Irish market, but there’s no doubt malbec has been clasped to the collective bosom in this country. It pushes certain buttons for many consumers: it tends to be rich, smooth, easy, and well suited to our damp and cool climate.

Catena has long been a name associated with Argentinian wine, and Laura Catena, a medic who trained at Harvard and Stanford, is the current head of the family firm, Catena Zapata, founded in 1902. She and head winemaker Alejanadro Vigil have recently published a colourful and fun book called Malbec Mon Amour (Catapulta Editores).

They point out the cross between ancient grape varieties Magdelaine noir des Charentes and prunelard probably took place on the banks of the Lot near Cahors before France was taken by the Romans. Cahors is still the capital of malbec on this side of the Atlantic.

Its significance in Bordeaux was diminished after the devastation of phylloxera in the late 19th Century, when producers chose to replant the earlier ripening merlot in its place. Having said that, many Bordeaux winemakers still insist malbec has a place in the blend.

Mendoza had been producing wine for centuries when Monsieur Pouget arrived there with malbec cuttings in 1853, and well-honed techniques were applied to it. Within a few decades, malbec had made Mendoza its own. Around the same time, the railway linked the vineyards to the urban market and European settlers, like the Catena family, mainly from Italy and Spain, came to dominate the industry.

The late 1960s saw an economic crisis and a new demand for cheap wine, leading to thousands of hectares of malbec vines being grubbed up and replaced with criolla. By the end of the 1970s, Argentinian reds were largely thin, lean, mean and often oxidised. Malbec planting had been slashed by 80%.

Nicolas Catena, Laura’s father, visited California and discovered the Napa Valley and its homage to the great wines of Bordeaux. Returning to Argentina, he reckoned his native land could do the same.

And the rest, as they say, is history – entertainingly related in this delightfully eccentric book.