Malbec MAYHEM!!! Argentina vs France

On the palate, you just get so much intense blueberries, blackberry fruits. Wow. I'm Matthew Horky. For the last seven years, I've traveled around the world tasting thousands of wines annually in search of the most unique, exciting, and expensive bottles on the planet. When most people think of the grape Malbec, they think of Argentina, but it's actually a French grape. Malbec was introduced to Argentina in the mid-1800s. They think it was by a French professor that was teaching winemaking, teaching analogy there, but really, its home is in the southwest of France. It's one of the historic varieties permitted in Bordeaux. It was introduced to Bordeaux in the 18th century. It actually comes from a region upriver a little bit, a region called Cahors. Cahors is an odd appellation in the southwest of France, but it's because it's the only red wine appellation in that entire part of the country that does not allow for Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc to be in the blends. The appellation laws in Cahors say the wines need to be at least 70% Malbec, and then they can blend a little bit Tannat or Merlot into the wine. A lot of producers do try to make 100% Malbec. Also, it's planted in the Loire, where it's known as Cote. Historically, since Cahors was so close to Bordeaux, a lot of those grapes were brought over and blended into Bordeaux to make them a little bit bigger, a little bit richer, a little bit darker. Malbecs tend to have a little bit more color. In the 90s, Argentinian, is it Argentinian or Argentine? I don't even know. Malbecs became more popular because they were round, lush, fruity. I have not been to Argentina yet. It's one of my great sadnesses. I hope to get there sooner rather than later. All I do know, Malbec's grown at lower elevations. They have thinner skins, they're a little fruitier. Those grown at higher elevations tend to have thicker skins or a little bit tougher, like the one that we have here. It's grown at over 3,000 feet of elevation. Malbec is the leading red grape planted in Argentina. It occupies over 16% of all the vineyard area in Argentina and I think over 45% of total red wine grape production. In general, those wines tend to be a little fruitier than those that you get from France. Cajor, especially the wines, can be a little bit rustic. I have to admit, I am not a hardcore expert in Cajor. I've had lots of them, except I can't spot off producers off the top of my head. I haven't been there before, but the wines tend to be a little bit more rustic. They can be kind of herbal, kind of leathery. Sometimes they can be a little bit bready, smell like horse manure. The one here I have, I've never tasted before. The Argentinian one. Argentine, Argentinian, I'm still confused. I haven't had this vintage, but I have had past vintages and one of the vintages was in Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of 2022, so I'm excited. Enough blabbing, let's taste the wines. I'm feeling a little special today. I got my Gabriel Glass Gold Editions. These are super thin, hand-blown. I don't have a link in the description box. I'm always promoting the standards because those are widely available. These gold editions, they're not so readily available. They're always sold out. I don't know, I had them handy. I thought I'd want to break them out. These are so thin, they're so nice. I've been doing a lot of blind tasting videos and they take a lot of planning. I gotta get my notebook out. I like these little face-offs because I get to spend intimate time with these wines. Don't have to have a notepad, just here with the wines. I think this is an episode where the wines will be drastically different and it won't come down to score, it'll come down to style. Although I have tasted some Cajor wines that are pretty fruity, pretty ripe, that act like an Argentinian version. Argentine, Argentinian, I still don't know. Leave it in the comments below if you know. These wines are pretty dark, that's for sure. They're not the same vintage. Wine one on the left has this Frenchness to it. French, classic French wines have this nice stemminess to them. People maybe that aren't around wine, if you're ever around fresh twigs, in the spring, if you go in the forest, when the shoots are starting to become a little bit green, that little smell, that's where you're getting a lot of high-quality French wines, I think. Leather, blackberry, blueberry-type flavors. Blackberry, oh, I think blueberry is a note that's really common in Malbec wines. Oh, the palate on wine one is super spicy. Black pepper, white pepper, a little bit of menthol. Gosh, I need to be drinking more Malbec. This is really good. I think this is the French, who knows? I don't know. Let's go on to wine two here. No. Wine one was awesome. Wine two has a little bit of brett, a little bit of funk. Brett is a brettanomyces. There's several different types. There's EP4, EG4. There's different types that smell a bit different. Kind of smell a little bit like armpit horset. I'll get a little bit of that. Get that a lot in French wines. I personally like it. Some people absolutely hate it, think it's a fault. I like it. I get it in this wine here. Blueberry, bubblegum, leather, leather, leather. Wow, it's completely different. Wow, completely different. Wow. On the palate, there's no brett at all. You smell it on the nose, but it blows off a little bit. On the palate, you just get so much intense blueberries, blackberry fruits, a little bit of pepper. The palate is so... That's why wine, man, is so exciting and so interesting. So unique. Just on the nose. I think this would be off-putting to some people, but on the palate, it's so fruity. It's so intense. These are big wines. Good. Length-wise, these two are about equal. And fruit intensity, about equal too. I'm surprised Malboc sometimes can be a little bit tannic, however the wines can be hard sometimes. This one is not. Round, suave. I wasn't really expecting much from today. Argentinian Malboc, Argentine Malboc, is not my favorite genre of wine, but that might change after today. Wow. These are both really good. I'm surprised. These are such unique wines because both of these, usually with big red wines, I want steak, I want meat, I want braised meats, but these have such intense blue fruits that they could go on their own. They're so spicy. I think I'm gonna have to be drinking more Malboc. I'll have to get back into it. What the heck? You ready for the reveal? These are super close. I think it comes down to stylistic purposes. Both have equal finish. This one, number one, might be a little spicier. This one, like it had that leathery component, kind of horsiness in the beginning, but it became really fruity on the palate. I think I might just buy a hair score, number one, a little bit higher, just because I think a lot of people will like it. I think this one was equally good. Both these wines were a lot better than I expected. Really good. Wine two, I have it at 93 points. Maybe I have to just start drinking more Malboc. I don't know. I think this is the Cajor, and it is. This is the Le Roque de Cana. This is the Sangui Cristi 2018 Cajor, 100% Malboc. This is aged in wood. 93 points, around 30 bucks. It is available in the US. I haven't really seen it before. I've known the owner of this winery for years because he imports Eastern European wines, and I thought that's all he did, and he messaged me. He said, would you like to taste some of my wines? I thought, I said, you make wine? He said, yeah, I just import Eastern European wine. I'm impressed with this wine. Equally impressed with this one. 93, 93 plus. I gave it just a tad hint because I think most of you are gonna like it. Clean, the stemminess. Now I know why it's stemmy. At first, I thought it was French, but this is made in whole cluster. This is the Zuccardi Concreto Malboc 2020, 35 bucks. Made, fermented, aged in concrete with whole clusters, so the stems are included. That's where you get some of that stemminess. Very nice. 93 plus points. The 2021, I think, was in Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of the Year. I even talked about it in a previous video. First time I had this wine was in Singapore at a hawker center in Singapore. What happens is all the street foods come to this one area where it's called a hawker center, so it's a little bit more hygienic, and you can sit outside, and my friend who loves wines, he's from Switzerland, brought this wine along with some other South American wines for us to try with the food. He's a particular palate. He didn't like this. I thought I was, at the time, I was really impressed, and I'm super impressed with this. Both these wines, 30, 35 bucks. You don't need to spend a ton to drink really high-class stuff. I was not expecting a lot from this video, but it might have turned me into a Malbec lover. Do you like Malbec? Tell me if you like French Malbec, you like Argentine Malbec, what producers you like, and I'll see you in the next video. Well, they even sound different.