The house grapes · red

Malbec: the French grape Argentina adopted

Malbec is a red grape that makes very dark wine, leaning toward purple, with aromas of plum and blackberry and full body. It was born in France, but it was in Argentina that it became a star: today it's the most planted grape there. If you've ever ordered “an Argentine” at a restaurant, chances are you drank one.

342 of the house's labels have Malbec267 made from Malbec alonefrom Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Portugal

Where it comes from

Malbec is French. In VIVC, the international grape catalog, its main name is Cot, and DNA testing found its parents: Magdeleine Noire des Charentes and Prunelard, two old French grapes. Magdeleine is also Merlot's mother. In other words: Malbec and Merlot are half-sisters.

In France, its home is Cahors, in the southwest. There, the appellation rules make Malbec the wine's main grape, with Merlot and Tannat in supporting roles. In Bordeaux, it's one of the possible seasonings in the blend, alongside Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

What it's like in the glass

Dark color, with a purple glint when the wine is young. On the nose, very ripe dark fruit: plum, blackberry, cherry, sometimes a floral touch. Argentina's official wine institute, the INV, sums it up like this: robust body and high acidity. It's the acidity that keeps each sip lively instead of heavy.

The tannin (that grip on your gums) shows up, but it's usually round. That's why Malbec is a good bridge for anyone moving on from sweet wine who wants a dry red that won't scare them off. With time in a barrel, it picks up aromas of vanilla, chocolate and coffee; without oak, it's pure fruit.

A vine leaf, a bunch of red grapes and a glass of Malbec wine. — fig. 1From the bunch to the glass: Malbec paints the wine dark, with a purple glint when young.

What it pairs with

The classic match is churrasco, Brazilian barbecue: picanha, flank steak, ribs, linguiça sausage. The ripe fruit stands up to the fat and the tannin cleans your mouth between bites. It also goes well with burgers, steak and onions, calabresa sausage pizza, empanadas, lasagna bolognese and semi-cured cheese. A young, unoaked Malbec can even handle a Saturday feijoada. It's a suggestion: if you liked it with something else, your taste is what counts.

Where it shines today

In Argentina, it reigns. At the end of 2024 there were 47,064 hectares, 23.5% of all the country's vineyards, according to the INV. Mendoza holds about 85% of that, with Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley standing out. In Salta, most of the Malbec is in Cafayate. In France, Cahors remains its most famous homeland.

In Chile, Malbec arrived earlier than in Argentina, back in the 1840s, but it stayed in a supporting role; the valley with the most Malbec is Colchagua. In Brazil, it's on the list of authorized grapes for the Campanha Gaúcha Indication of Provenance (IP), which makes varietal Malbec in small quantities. In Portugal, it barely shows up: it's not on IVV's list of most planted varieties, which is the territory of local grapes, like Touriga Nacional.

Its other names

In VIVC, the official name is Cot, and the list of synonyms has 194 names. In practice, three show up on labels: Malbec, the most common worldwide; Cot or Côt, as France usually calls it; and Auxerrois, an old name also recorded in the catalog. The Cahors rules put it like this: “cot, also called malbec”.

Why April 17 is Malbec Day

Malbec World Day was created by Wines of Argentina and celebrated for the first time on April 17, 2011. The date recalls April 17, 1853, when the French agronomist Michel Aimé Pouget, hired by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (who would later become president), presented in Mendoza the project for a Quinta Normal, an agricultural school. That's the path by which Malbec came into Argentina.

An honest detail: nobody has found a record of the day the first cutting arrived. The grape geneticist José Vouillamoz, who looked into the matter, points out that 1853 marks the project, not the arrival, and he endorses historian Pablo Lacoste, who treats Malbec's establishment in Mendoza as a process that ran from 1853 to 1890. The date celebrates the beginning of the story, and that's just fine.