Margaret River Back Vintage Malbec 2017

PRESALE WINE

About The Wine

This amazing Margaret River Back Vintage Malbec 2017 is full of juicy dark fruits such as blackcurrant. The palate has elegant oak spice and mocha flavours with super fine tannins providing structure.

Comments from Wine Buyer Steve

Malbec has been grown in Margaret River since the very beginning of the region’s establishment It was blended with Cabernet in the region’s first red wine made by Tom Cullity of Vasse Felix. We have been very fortunate to get our hands on this beautiful Back Vintage 2017 from a very small producer in the region. The wine is full of up-front dark berry flavours and finishes with a smooth tannin structure. It’s also an absolute bargain for our customers at $12.00 per bottle. The winery under its brand was selling it for $35.00 per bottle. That’s a huge $23 per bottle saving (65% off branded price)

Score – 93/100 WA Cellars Gold medal.

What is Malbec? 

Malbec was a relatively forgotten red wine variety in Australia until about a decade ago, but thanks to Argentina there is now a great deal of interest in the variety.

Malbec’s home is the Cahors Region in South West France. In that region it makes rich dark wines referred to as “black wines”. These reached legendary status in pre-Phylloxera times, but the Cahors region has taken a long time to recover from that disaster. Only in recent decades have the Cahors wines regained more than local recognition.

The variety is certainly less common in Australia than it was a couple of decades ago, but there is some evidence that it may be making a comeback. Until the 1980s Malbec was used as blending material with Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz or both. The role of blending partner with Cabernet has been supplanted by Merlot.

Malbec goes right back to the start of the Margaret River wine making story. It was blended with Cabernet in the region’s first red wine made by Tom Cullity of Vasse Felix. In a nice piece of symmetry Vasse Felix’s current Winemaker Virginia Wilcock has reintroduced Malbec into the blend with Cabernet in their greatest red ‘Tom Cullity’.

Today it’s the fourth most widely planted red varietal in Margaret River after the ‘big three’ of Cabernet, Shiraz and Merlot.