The Trapiche Oak Cask Malbec is 100% Malbec sourced from vineyards in Mendoza, Argentina. Trapiche was founded in 1883 and the facilities and vineyards were updated, under new ownership, in 2002. Trapiche owns 7 vineyards in Mendoza and they are the largest Argentinean exporter of wine. This Malbec was produced with all the bells and whistles, the grapes were hand harvested, the berries were selected for quality and de-stemed before fermentation. The wine was aged in French and American oak barrels for 9 months and then the different vineyard lots were blended together before bottling. That is a lot of production detail for a bottle selling for $8.99. The alcohol content is 14%.
The color is a nearly opaque, slightly rusty black cherry red. The nose is blackberry, a grassy aroma, a hint of burning autumn leaves, spice drops and prune. There is a full mouthfeel, silky with an edge. It starts off with rich, extracted blackberry, a slight pull in the back of your palate from the tannins, smoke from pork cooked on the grill and cherry cola. The mid palate brings sweet vanilla and ripe plum, along with orange zest and cranberry. The acidity is buried under all the flavor, but shows up on the finish to help the sweet and tart berry flavors tingle on your tastebuds for a respectable length of time.
I was talking to a wine distributor the other day, and he was saying that industry people were telling him that wines with no acidity and no tannins were the way to go, if you want to sell wine in volume. Thankfully the importer of Trapiche Oak Cask Malbec didn’t listen to any of that nonsense. The Trapiche Malbec is a full flavored, well rounded, real Malbec, with a proper dose of tannins and acidity. It is one of those wines that make you wonder how Argentina can make a Malbec, the right way, for so little dough.
