Wine Making: The Malbec Grape

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Malbec grape
Malbec is a one of the purple grape varieties which is belonging to Vitis Vinifera used for red wine making. Because Malbec is one of the six grapes permitted for blending red Bordeaux wines, it has become popular and widely grown in South West France in last several decades. Moreover, in Argentina it has become the leading variety. The Malbec tends to have a very dark inky color and robust tannins, and usually it is berry fruit flavour and spice finished. It is also called Auxerrois or Côt Noir in Cahors, called Malbec in Bordeaux, Pressac in other regions, and it has extensive more than 50 varietal synonym names (Robinson, 1986).
History of Malbec
Malbec is originated in Cahors region in South West France, and widely planted in Cahors and Bordeaux regions decades ago. However, after suffering Phylloxera outbreak and a serious frost, the growing regions had a long time to recover, and less than 2,500 acres remained in Bordeaux. While the declining in France, Malbec was brought into Argentina vineyards in 19th century. With the appropriation of growing conditions, the Malbec was planted increasing fast in Argentina, and it becomes the most widely planting red grape variety for everyday drinking with reasonable management in Argentina (“A short history of Malbec”). With the success of Malbec in Argentina, many other countries began try to growing this variety, and recently, it was already planted in Chile, South America, and slightly planting in other regions comprising Italy, South Africa and New Zealand (Robinson, 2006).
Wine type and taste
Generally, Malbec is used for making full body red wines, and it is well known for having dark fruit flavours and usually with smoky finished. However, the Malbec from Argentina...

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