Matchbox Wine Co Malbec 2012
I am a big fan of Malbec and while there is plenty of Malbec grown in Australia, there are not enough 100% Malbecs produced. Well, get ready to join the bleachers with me as newly converted fans! Matchbox Wine Co is a brand shiny new label by unique wine team – Nav & Louise – which launches with some food-loving wines, a more-ish Riesling, an as yet untasted Syrah, & this Malbec.
Nav has been doing some winemaking in the Clare Valley and has cannily sourced the grapes for this wine from a vineyard with established old vines. The concentration & richness leaps out of the glass with its purple hued vibrancy of berry spice fruit. According to Nav, ‘It is all about the aromatics” and the sweetly floral & pure fruit fragrance attests to that.
Wild ferment in open puncheons give that extra dimension & succulent suppleness to the fruit without adding big oak. This is a food friendly wine that you can simply enjoy with company or drink with dinner.
Date: 3 July 2012 Price: $30 Value: $$$ Drink: Now – 5+ years
This is a wine that brings to mind Roast Beef & Yorkshire Puds. Being a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (60%), Merlot (14%), Cabernet Franc (12%), Malbec (5%) & Shiraz (5%) nothing about this wine is straight forward except that it is rather tasty and that immediately you taste it you think of food. Even the Cabernet is not just from a single clone, but from six!