Another week rolling on through the Malbec express and I budget line. Paycheck doesn’t hit the bank account until the end of this week and there wasn’t much in the rack where I was getting excited about popping open a higher-priced bottle. Nothing going on worth celebrating.
The only problem is that I went too far in the other
direction and ended up with a thoroughly underwhelming bottle of Mondavi
Woodbridge that did more to hurt my feelings than warm my bones. I suppose that
is the price paid for only shelling out $8 for a bottle, but it did me no
favors. So after half a glass the remainder of the bottle went back to the
earth. It’s not that it was a waste of money, it just didn’t have that burly
presence to which I am normally accustomed. So I went for the Kaiken Malbec
Reserva Mendocino I picked up for $11, which was supposed to last me for the
Sunday night porch fire but due to the unexpected Woodbridge Incident, was
round two for Saturday night. A massive improvement. But the contrast between
the two bottles left me with the question: do Malbecs originating in the US
continuously practice the Wrong Way of making Malbec? That takes on another
question of right way vs. wrong way, but it seems as if no matter what there
are very few United States producers that can go toe-to-toe with even the most
midrange of stuff from Argentina or France, or even Chile. Or are Americans
trying to develop their own stamp on the Malbec profile that weakens the over
its overall boldness?
The growers at US vineyards are incredibly talented, and in
my day job I’ve had the good fortune to communicate with many of them. But the
inconsistency just leaves me for want of, rather than being perpetually excited
to be a cheerleader. It might just be a colonial thing where the US demands the
rest of the world bend to its will on “how things ought to be”. Or it could be
a geographic/agricultural thing where things are close, but there’s just no
cigar anywhere to be found.
The Kaiken got the job done, and at $11 USD, it’s a
recommended budget buy.