Is Malbec ready to be a terroir wine?

If most wine drinkers associate Argentina with Malbec, how can producers shift the perception to highlight its fantastic ability to adapt to different terroirs? Our Global Malbec Masters competition offers that opportunity. Enter by 23 July for the chance to win a medal.

Malbec certainly has one of the most successful wine stories of the turn of the century. The grape variety, originally from Bordeaux where it is known as Côt, found a second home in Argentina and soon in the glass of wine drinkers all around the world, with the US and the UK as its biggest fans.

The generic term of ‘Argentine Malbec’, associated with a full-bodied red with high alcohol and ripe dark berries, helped put both Argentina and Malbec on a map, bringing recognition as its popularity and exports raised. But how well does this term reflect the reality of this grape variety in 2024?

Terrazas de los Andes estate director Lucas Löwi argues that “it’s time to talk specifically about terroir” in Argentina – Malbecs from Las Compuertas, Altamira, Los Chacayes and Gualtallary have “very, very different soils.”

“Malbec has a history of being fantastic at adapting” adds sommelier Andrés Rosberg from the region Los Chacaye.

It can be vinified in many different ways, from white to dessert wines, and doesn’t only thrive in Mendoza.

Malbec’s capacity to adapt means it can be a fantastic reflection of the diverse terroir of Argentina and other countries where it is planted, a point supported by last year’s analysis of the Global Malbec Masters by chairing judge Patrick Schmitt MW: “between [the 2000s] and now, we’ve watched the Malbecs of southwest France gradually soften, fill out and improve, and the versions from South America move from fat to skinny, sometimes green, and then a little bit back again to a position, right now, where they are generous, ripe, but also refreshing”.

The Global Malbec Masters competition returns next month and is the perfect opportunity to highlight the diversity and nuances of the grape variety.

Chaired by a panel of expert judges (mostly Masters of Wine), all wines are tasted blind, allowing Malbec from across the globe to be judged purely on style and price.

The competition is open for another five weeks, to any Malbec varietals or blends with at least 50% of Malbec. Results will be published in the September issue of the drinks business magazine and online.

Let your Malbec show its true colours and enter the competition here before the 23 July 2024.

Entries cost £159 ex VAT
For more information contact: sophie@thedrinksbusiness.com