Wilson Vineyard | NEWS AND TRIVIA FILE

Malbec is not widely grown in Australia, which is a pity, because it is an under-rated variety.

My first experience with the variety was with the Leasingham Cabernet-Malbecs of the early 70s. Stanley continues to produce a cabernet- malbec, as does Wendouree, which in fact had the first plantings of Malbec in the Clare Valley.

Straight malbec wines are fairly rare; the most commonly encountered being by Bleasedale, and for a while there was one from one of the Riverland producers, which didn't do a great deal to enhance the reputation of the variety.

Malbec is of French origin, where it is also known as Cot. In the past it was grown quite extensively in Bordeaux, and is still officially listed as one of the five authorised red varieties of that region (the others are cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, and petite verdot). There is little malbec now found in Bordeaux, and some sources suggest that its fall from favour has resulted from viticultural problems since grown on rootstocks after the advent of phylloxera.

Further south of Bordeaux, in the region of Cahors, malbec has been the principal grape variety, and has been used to make the famous "black wines of Cahors". These wines have been less popular in recent years because they have required such long cellaring times, and there has been a trend towards a lighter style.

The only other country to grow appreciable quantities of malbec appears to be Chile; Chile and South/Western Australia are the only areas of the world to have escaped phylloxera, and the need for grafting onto rootstocks.

In Australia, malbec fell into disrepute for three reasons. Firstly, plantings of "malbec" in Victoria were found to produce only mediocre wines - subsequently explained by the discovery that they were not malbec but dolcetto. Secondly the true malbec: - mainly in South Australia, were of a poor cropping clone and were not considered an economic, variety by growers. Thirdly, when grown in warm and irrigated regions it produced a thin and uninteresting wine.

The wine that we grow is a higher yielding clone (1056). Its yield is comparable to cabernet sauvignon, although it is a far less popular grape with the pickers who have to untangle its long and tortuous bunches from each other; and it sometimes evokes a few curses in the winery when those same long and tangled stalks cause an occasional jam in the crusher.

The colour is intense; little wonder that they call them the "black wines" in France. Even though the pulp of the berry has no colour, the juice immediately picks up colour from the skin on crushing; there's no mistaking the sample of malbec juice in the lab, it's the only one that is deep pink. The depth of colour persists in the finished wine, and then with bottle-age, tends to precipitate out as a fine deposit that stains the inside of the bottle.

The new wine is fresh, agreeably perfumed, distinctively tangy, and surprisingly soft for a wine of such colour. It is only after 12 months in wood that it is blended.

In 1984 and 1985 we blended it with cabernet at the rate of 5% and 15% respectively. A little bit goes a long way, and tends to fill out the middle palate that is often lacking with straight cabernet.

The 1985 Rx class also included 20% malbec blended with the cabernet and shiraz for the first time, creating more complex wine, but one still showing pronounced fruit and softness on the palate.

The blending of the 1986 wines will be very similar to 1985. Although too early to comment on the 1987 wines, it is our plan to reduce the malbec proportion a little in the cabernet blend, as we will have some merlot available to blend in.

It seems that malbec is making something of a comeback; the recently released Jimmy Watson Trophy wine has about 25% malbec.

There are no immediate plans to release a straight malbec, as its main value is in blending, however if we finish a vintage with a surplus of the variety, then the release of a limited edition 100% wine may be possible.