Malbec

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Malbec

Malbec is a variety of grape

Grape

File:Table grapes on white.jpgA grape is the non-Climacteric #In_botany fruit that grows on the Perennial plant and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis....
used in making

Winemaking

Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine....
red wine. The grapes tend to have an inky dark colour and robust tannin

Tannin

Tannins are astringent, bitter plant polyphenols that either bind and Precipitation or shrink proteins. The astringency from the tannins is what causes the dry and puckery feeling in the mouth following the consumption of red wine or an unripened fruit....
s. Long known as one of the six grapes allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux wine

Bordeaux wine

A Bordeaux wine is any wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France. Average vintages produce over 700 million bottles of Bordeaux wine, although in good vintages, this total can exceed over 900 million, ranging from large quantities of everyday table wine, to some of the most expensive and prestigious wines in the world....
, the French plantations of Malbec are now found primarily in Cahors in the South West France

South West France (wine region)

South West France or in French language Sud-Ouest, is a wine region in France covering several wine-producing areas situated respectively inland from, and south of, the wine region of Bordeaux wine....
region. It is increasingly celebrated as an Argentine

Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
varietal

Varietal

"Varietal" describes wines made primarily from a single named grape Variety , and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label....
wine and is being grown around the world.

Malbec is believed to be named after a Hungarian peasant who first spread the variety throughout France.

Malbec grape is a thin-skinned grape and needs more sun and heat than either Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine List of grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major List of wine-producing countries among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canadian wine Okanagan Valley to Lebanese wine Beqaa Valley....
or Merlot

Merlot

Merlot is a red wine grape that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. Merlot-based wines usually have body with hints of berry, plum, and Zante currant....
to mature.

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Encyclopedia

Malbec is a variety of grape

Grape

File:Table grapes on white.jpgA grape is the non-Climacteric #In_botany fruit that grows on the Perennial plant and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis....
used in making

Winemaking

Tannin

Bordeaux wine

South West France (wine region)

Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
varietal

Varietal

Description

The Malbec grape is a thin-skinned grape and needs more sun and heat than either Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon

Merlot

Merlot is a red wine grape that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. Merlot-based wines usually have body with hints of berry, plum, and Zante currant....
to mature. It ripens mid-season and can bring very deep color, ample tannin, and a particular plum-like flavor component to add complexity to claret

Claret

Claret is a name used in English language, primarily in United Kingdom, for red wine from the Bordeaux wine region of France....
blends. Sometimes, especially in its traditional growing regions, it is not trellised and cultivated as bush vines (the goblet system). Here it is sometimes kept to a relatively low yield of about 6 tons per hectare. The wines are rich, dark and juicy. As a varietal it creates a rather inky red (or violet), intense wine, so it is also commonly used in blends, such as with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon to create the renowned red French Bordeaux "claret" blend. Other wine regions use the grape to produce Bordeaux-style blends. The grape needs a high differential between day and evening temperatures, with a minimum fluctuation of 27 degrees Fahrenheit (15 °C) in a day. The varietal is sensitive to frost and has a proclivity to shatter or coulure

Coulure

Coulure is the French word for the result of a metabolic and weather conditions that causes the failure of the grapes to develop after flowering....
. The grape is blended with Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is one of the major red grape varieties of the world. It is mostly grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone, such as the Chinon wine from the Loire ....
and Gamay in some regions such as the Loire Valley.

Called Auxerrois or Cot Noir in Cahors, called Malbec in Bordeaux

Bordeaux

is a Port city on the Garonne in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its aire urbaine at a 2008 estimate. It is the Capital of the Aquitaine regions of France, as well as the Prefectures in France of the Gironde Departments of France....
, and Pressac
Pressac

Pressac is a village and Communes of the Vienne department in the Vienne departments of France of western France....
in other places, the grape became less popular in Bordeaux after 1956 when frost

Frost

Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from Saturation air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air....
killed off 75% of the crop. Despite Cahors being hit by the same frost, which devastated the vineyards, Malbec was replanted and continued to be popular in that area where it was mixed with Merlot and Tannat

Tannat

Tannat is a red wine grape, historically grown in South West France in the Madiran AOC and is now one of the most prominent grapes in Uruguay, where it is considered the "national grape"....
to make dark, full-bodied wines, and more recently has been made into 100% Malbec wines there. Despite a similar name, the grape Malbec argenté is not Malbec, but rather the southwestern France grape Abouriou

Abouriou

Abouriou is a red wine grape grown primarily in South West France and, in small quantities, in California. It is a blending grape that along with Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Fer, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Gamay is used to make the French wine C?tes du Marmandais....
. The grape is also confused with Auxerrois blanc, which is an entirely different variety.

In the early 1990s there was a massive resurgence in the consumption of red wine, based on the idea that they were good for your health. Shiraz

Shiraz

Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Shiraz Ali, former Bermudian cricketer...
was one of the main beneficiaries. Recent research indicates that the health benefits of red wine drinking depends on the presence of certain polyphenol

Polyphenol

Polyphenols are a group of chemical substances found in plants, characterized by the presence of more than one phenol unit or building block per molecule....
s called oligomeric procyandins

Proanthocyanidin

Proanthocyanidin is a class of flavanols. Proanthocyanidins are essentially polymer chains of flavonoids such as catechins. One was discovered in 1936 by Professor Jacques Masquelier and called Vitamin P, although this name did not gain official category status and has since fallen out of usage....
(OPS). Malbec and Tannat seem to be the varieties with the most OPS.

Regions

Malbec is the dominant red varietal in Cahors where the Appellation Controlée

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Appellation d?origine contr?l?e , which translates as "controlled term of origin" is the French certification granted to certain France geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National des Appellations d'Origine ....
regulations for Cahors require a minimum content of 70%.

Introduced to Argentina by French agricultural engineer Michel Pouget in 1868, Malbec is widely planted in Argentina producing a softer, less tannic

Tannin

Tannins are astringent, bitter plant polyphenols that either bind and Precipitation or shrink proteins. The astringency from the tannins is what causes the dry and puckery feeling in the mouth following the consumption of red wine or an unripened fruit....
-driven variety than the wines of Cahors. The best examples of these wines come from the Argentine region of Mendoza

Mendoza Province

Mendoza is one of the Provinces of Argentina of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo, Argentina region. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Juan Province, Argentina, San Luis Province, La Pampa,and Neuqu?n Province....
. In Argentina, where Malbec seems to have found a natural home, the grape is used to produce very popular varietal wines. It is now thought that the variety known as Fer in that country is a clone. Although the grape is currently Argentina's premier grape, wine makers tried to remove it from the vineyard. In the 1980s Argentina initiated a "vine pull" program until there were only 10,000 acres (4000 ha) of the grape left. In the 1990s, Malbec's potential and the increase of wine exports from South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
saved the grape.

There were once 50,000 hectares planted with Malbec in Argentina; now there are 25,000 hectares in Mendoza in addition to production in La Rioja, Salta, San Juan, Catamarca and Buenos Aires. Chile

Chilean wine

Chilean wine is wine made in the South American country of Chile. The region has a long viticulture history for a New World wine region dating to the 16th century when the Spain conquistadors brought Vitis vinifera vines with them as they Spanish colonization of the Americas....
has about 6,000 hectares planted, France 5,300 hectares and in the cooler regions of California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
just 45 hectares. In California the grape is used to make Meritage

Meritage

Meritage is a word used to distinguish wines that are made in the style of red Bordeaux wine but without infringing on that region's legally protected designation of origin....
. Malbec is also grown in Washington State

Washington

Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, New Zealand

New Zealand wine

New Zealand wine is largely produced in ten major list of wine-producing regions spanning latitudes 36? to 45? South and extending 1,600 km . They are, from north to south Northland Region, Auckland , Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Wellington Region, Nelson, New Zealand, Marlborough, New Zealand, Canterbury, New Zealand and C...
, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's Provinces and territories of Canada and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu ....
, Long Island, New York, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers and settlers....
, southern Bolivia

Bolivia

The Republic of Bolivia , named after Sim?n Bol?var, is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west....
, northeastern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
and recently in southern Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a Provinces and territories of Canada located in the Central Canada part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area....
.

Synonyms

Agreste, Auxerrois, Auxerrois De Laquenexy, Auxerrois Des Moines De Picpus, Auxerrois Du Mans, Balouzat, Beran, Blanc De Kienzheim, Cahors, Calarin, Cauli, Costa Rosa, Cot A Queue Verte, Cotes Rouges, Doux Noir, Estrangey, Gourdaux, Grelot De Tours, Grifforin, Guillan, Hourcat, Jacobain, Luckens, Magret, Malbec, Malbek, Medoc Noir, Mouranne, Navarien, Negre De Prechac, Negrera, Noir De Chartres, Noir De Pressac, Noir Doux, Nyar De Presak, Parde, Perigord, Pied De Perdrix, Pied Noir, Pied Rouge, Pied Rouget, Piperdy, Plant D'Arles, Plant De Meraou, Plant Du Roi, Prechat, Pressac, Prunieral, Quercy, Queue Rouge, Quille De Coy, Romieu, Teinturin, Terranis, Vesparo, Côt, Plant du Lot.

Malbec

Description

Regions

Synonyms

See also

External links