Wine of the week: a malbec in a league of its own

This 2011 malbec is as sumptuous and decadent as a wine five times the price, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
By Matthew Jukes
published

770-Gouguenheim-wine

2011 Gouguenheim, Flores del Valle, Blue Melosa Malbec, Valle Escondido, Mendoza, Argentina (£12.95, reduced to £11.45 each if you buy three bottles, until 18 January, Tanners, 01743-234455, Tanners-Wines.co.uk).

Shrewsbury-based wine merchant Tanners is on a roll at the moment. A recent press tasting yielded a cornucopia of beauties and I, sadly, haven't enough space on this page to cover off all of the wines, so I have picked just one and it is a game-changer.

I have been following this Gouguenheim red for a few years and it is one of the few Argentinean malbecs which I feel is truly in balance the fruit, oak and tannin are all superbly assimilated. However, this 2011 vintage is in a league of its own. The vineyards are incredibly high-altitude, over a kilometre above sea level, and this situation lends this wine a coolness and calmness which is evident in every sip.

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Owned by Patricio Gouguenheim, who was a successful Wall Street financier, the property is called Valle Escondido (Hidden Valley) and this cuve is named after an indigenous flower which rather echoes the beauty and colour of the wine. The perfume and deep purple hue is enhanced by oak, which augments the flavours rather than drying them out, as is so often the case in this part of the world.

This is as sumptuous and decadent as a wine five times the price.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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