Festivo (Argentina) Malbec 2003
It is quite some time since I recomended an Argentinean Malbec as Wine of the Week, yet the style remains distinctive and the quality high, so it is nice to celebrate Argentina’s ace in the grapevine pack. This wine comes from the same team that brings you the much-praised Clos de la Siete label, vinified at Bodega Monteviejo where Michel Rolland is consultant. Though I personally thought that wine rather overly tannic and powerful, there is an ephemeral floral and rose-hip edge on the nose of this bottling, even though it has a bruising 14.3% alcohol. There’s a solid underpinning of bramble and mulberry, spicy fruit. On the palate it has plenty of tannin, but it is chocolaty, rounded and so full of thick, supple fruit that it remains balanced. Acidity is rather lost under all that heft, but it is there into a leathery, rich and spicy finish. 6.50, Friarwood Wines
