In the past few years, I've discovered a number of wineries are making Malbec as a single varietal wine instead of using it as a blending grape. What's behind this recent change?
Malbec long has been one of the anonymous partners in Bordeaux reds, where it labors unnoticed, often in tandem with Petit Verdot. Malbec adds lush, juicy, dark fruit flavors, color and tannin to those French blends and also is grown in the Loire and several regions around the Mediterranean.
In addition to often being dismissed as a blending grape, Malbec suffers because it has "at least 34 different names," according to The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia. In Cahors, for example, it is usually called Auxerrois, the name most of us would apply to the white grape grown in Alsace, Chablis and British Columbia.
So it's not surprising that longtime wine lovers in the Northwest have seen little of this grape in anything but red blends. Wine Press Northwest did its first review of a Malbec in 2001. That wine was made in 1999 from Umpqua Valley grapes at Abacela Vineyards & Winery and received a "recommended" rating, according to our wine review archives.
It was an inauspicious Northwest debut for a grape that's been consistently good in the years since. For although we've rated only 109 Malbecs since our first 2001 review, 39 of them have earned an "Outstanding!" rating - our tasting panel's equivalent of a gold medal-level wine - or higher. That's 35.8 percent of the total tasted.
For comparison, it's worth noting that the Wine Press Northwest tasting panel has published reviews of 1,103 Merlots, arguably Washington's signature red wine, since our first edition. And 425 of those Merlots have rated an "Outstanding!" rating or better, or 38.5 percent of them.
Thus I think it's reasonable to conclude the Northwest can make a Malbec of a quality that rivals one of the red wines that helped establish our region's reputation as a place where fine wines are produced.
The Northwest's winemakers seem to agree. Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Idaho wineries all have been turning out Malbecs in the past 10 years.
Abacela owner Earl Jones was an early advocate for bottling Malbec as a varietal wine, and his 2000, 2001 and 2004 vintages all were rated Outstanding wines.
In the Northwest, the 2005 vintage holds the honors for the best Malbec vintage released and rated so far, with Maryhill Winery's Proprietor's Reserve made from Columbia Valley grapes and Reininger Winery's bottling made from Pepper Bridge Vineyard grapes both winning Platinum awards in Wine Press Northwest's 2008 Platinum Judging.
The Reininger Malbec is especially memorable for me because I first tasted it at the 2008 Northwest Wine Summit, where it tied with a 2004 Merlot from Northstar Winery for the best Washington wine. Jones, who was on a judging panel with me when we tasted that flight, described it as "about as good a Malbec as you can make."
If you're searching for more good Malbecs, I'd suggest looking for wines made by Abacela, Alexandria Nicole, Barnard Griffin, Fidelitas, Mount Baker or Tildio. I recently enjoyed a Chateau Ste. Michelle 2005 Vineyard Select Malbec with pork tenderloin and a sauce made from cherry preserves and a red wine blend. The combination was delicious.
Wine words: Fortification
In both war and wine, fortification adds strength. For wine, it means adding alcohol to boost a wine above the generally accepted strength of 8.5 to 15 percent for an unfortified still wine. Usually, anything from 17 to 24 percent is designated as a fortified wine.
There are three generally accepted methods of fortifying a wine. In the first, called mutage, alcohol is added to fresh grape juice, which prevents fermentation by killing any wild yeast, preserves the natural sugar in the wine and still produces a fortified, very sweet wine.
In France, these wines are known as vins de liqueurs, and are produced in Cognac, Armagnac and Champagne regions, according to The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia.
In a process called early fortification, alcohol is added after fermentation begins, usually in several small, carefully calibrated doses, sometimes over as much as several days. The amount of alcohol added and the process for adding it depend on the aim of the winemaker.
For Port, the fortified wine most familiar to most of us, the alcohol is added after fermentation has boosted the alcohol level to about 6 percent to 8 percent, which is when about half the sugar has been consumed by the yeast. Typically, the added alcohol raises the Port-style wine to about 18 percent alcohol.
In the Northwest and California, where Syrah and Zinfandel often are used in Port-style wines, a hot growing region with lots of late summer and early fall sun can easily boost the sugar content (brix) in the grapes to 26 percent or a bit above. Assuming a brix of that level, the remaining sugar content will be somewhere around 10 percent to 12 percent.
To produce the other common fortified wine, the sherry type, late fortification is usually used. Traditionally, it is made only from white wine grapes - Palomino, Pedro Ximenez and Moscatel - and these days to be legally labeled as Sherry, Jerez or Xeres, it must be made in the Cadiz region of Spain. The winemaker does not add alcohol until after fermentation is complete, which produces a dry wine. For a sweeter wine, sugar also is added. Typically, these wines will be 15 percent to 17.5 percent alcohol.
Ken Robertson, a newspaperman for 40 years and a Wine Press Northwest columnist since its founding, has enjoyed sipping and writing about Northwest wines for 32 years. He lives in Kennewick, Wash. Have a question for Ken? E-mail krobertson@winepressnw.com.
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