Cab Savvy: The Mighty Malbec

The sun is shining, the weather is warm, and the AC units have yet to be turned on. Given the heat, many of us flee from the arms of Dionysus into those of Anheiser Busch. We choose watery lager to fight the heat over its richer, bolder cousin: wine. While I am certainly not advocating destroying the great American tradition of summer beer and barbecue, our love for wine need not hibernate until the cooler months. Mallbec is a wine perfectly suited for the summer. It is rich, dark, spicy and yet not overwhelming in this type of heat.

While interest in this wine is new, the grape itself certainly is not. It has been grown and used in France for centuries, generally blended into the popular French Bordeaux. At some point, an enterprising Frenchman carried some vines over to Argentina. The grape found a new home in the Mendoza region there, and quickly flourished. Argentinian vineyards have carried Malbec to new heights. In fact Argentinian wine and Malbec are almost synonymous at this point. While fewer and fewer fields are devoted to it in France, Argentinians continue to plant the grape in greater and greater numbers. Aside from its delicious yet not overbearing taste, Malbecs are surpisingly cheap. Most great bottles can be found for between $10-15. This is likely due to the fact that for all its allure, people still don't really know about it.

I recently picked up a bottle of Bec Fin Santa Cecilia from Best Cellars in Dupont. It's the only Malbec they're carrying right now and it's only $9. This admittedly wasn't the best wine I've ever had, but I can say it's one of the best $9 wines I've ever had. It poured a deep plum purple. The smell and taste were heavily of fruit. Blackberry, chocolate, and pepper all came through. It was tasty and rich, but not overwhelming even in the heat.


This wine can be enjoyed with a nice steak, or even at an outdoor barbecue. It's a summer wine, something to enjoy in these warm afternoons that is still tasty and complex. As the weather heats up, keep cab saavy.