More and more people are looking to buy good Argentinian Malbec, or to use the new correct adjective, good Argentine Malbec, as it’s quality has recently been widely publicised. It’s the grape that helped put Argentina in the spotlight in the wine world, as the Argentinian (Argentine!) producers are able to craft some exceptional wines from this grape, unmatched by any other country in the world. If you’re looking to buy good Argentinian Malbec, please read on for some top suggestions.

Malbec was originally grown in the South of France, although it was traditionally blended with other grapes to produce red Bordeaux – or Claret – as we Brits know it. It needs a great deal of sunshine to fully ripen, and a big differential between night and day time temperatures, so most wine producing regions of Argentina are very well suited, as they’re virtually all at altitude and all sheltered from rainfall by the Andes, giving many regions a glorious 320 days a year of sunshine – about the same as we get in the UK in 10 years!  France on the other hand always struggled with the climate and concentrated on different grapes requiring less sunshine to ripen.

Argentina has made enormous progress and is now producing world class red blends, especially Bordeaux based blends, some excellent red varietals including a few suprises like excellent Sangiovese! And some very good white varietals – especially Torrontes – plus some great sparkling wines and dessert wines too. So you’d think you couldn’t really go wrong ordering something Argentinian on a wine list? Well, unfortunately as with other major wine producing countries,  there are plenty of unscrupulous companies taking advantage of Argentina’s success, to produce inferior wines and sell them on the back of the recent good publicity. But don’t despair, get some good advice and you’ll be drinking some of the best red wines around, for a fraction of the price of anything French any where near the same quality.

One of the best and most popular mid priced Malbecs around at present is Susana Balbo Malbec, from her new venture Dominio del Plata in Mendoza. However, if you want something really impressive for less money, try Eral Bravo Malbec, the brand name of a new boutique winery in Mendoza set up by the Sanchez Nieto family who’ve been making exceptional wines in Argentina for 30 years. It’s still relatively unheard of over here but their wines are fabulous. If you want to spend a little more and experience one of the very best Malbecs around, try NQN Malma Colleccion Malbec from Patagonia – another boutique winery producing exceptional wines. They make a lot of good wines in small quantities and their standard Malbec is very good, their Riserva is even better, but this - their Colleccion - is something very special. Finally for the ultimate in indulgence, travel to the other end of Argentina, high up on the plains of Salta, and go for El Porvenir de Los Andes Laborum Malbec. This is a hand crafted wine made in tiny quantities, about 18000 bottles annually. They make superb varietals from other grapes too, including a stunning Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and a fabulous Tannat – another Argentine speciality. I defy anybody to try these four Malbecs and not be impressed. They’re all available from Argentine specialist and all round good wine specialist www.goodwineonline.co.uk

The internet is full of wine blogs, wine enthusiasts just like ourselves who like and enjoy wine as part of their everyday lives. However, with everything, there is a lot of misinformation and content put out by poor quality commercial wineries, pretending to be independent, peddling their wares. Who do you trust? Here are 3 blogs that share the same passion and knowledge as Wine Wire, and are well worth taking a look at.

1. Wine Conversation – http://www.wineconversation.com/

This wine blog was set up Robert McIntosh a wine blogger who began wine blogging in 2006. He works in the UK representing wineries from Rioja, although this is his job, the Wine Conversation blog has nothing to do with his work and the blog is set up for his own thoughts on wine. This wine blog focuses on different innovative ways on wine marketing from up to date wine communication, distribution and packaging. The wine conversation blog is unique as it expresses wine culture from the mind of the real wine appreciator.

We like this wine blog because it offers readers an inspiring and innovative education on wine & wine marketing. Also it seems to be ahead of other wine blogs in bringing up to date wine blogging marketing through different inventive mediums.

Blogs we like from the Wine Conversation

The future of wine writing
Interactive wine tasting

2. Jamie Goode’s wine blog – http://www.wineanorak.com/blog/index.htm

Jamie Goode is a wine journalist, a member of the circle of wine writers, book editor, and publisher for wineanorak.com, a leading wine website.

Jamie is very popular within the wine writing industry and has his own column within The Sunday Express. With his job come fantastic opportunities for travel and wine tasting. The reason we like Jamie Goode’s blog is because it is very personal to his life experiences. We enjoy reading what he has been up to and what he has seen that week. He reports back on some of the most beautiful places in the world, and he gets to visit fantastic vineyards, which we enjoy learning about.

Blogs we like from Jamie are

Cornwall: the Eden Project
The Beauty of the Douro

3. Confessions of a Wino – http://www.alastairbathgate.com/

This wine blog is by Alastair Bathgathe who describes himself as an amateur wine enthusiast (whose waistline also reveals a love of decent food). We like this wine blog because it is for everyone. Alastair shares his passions for different wines and foods for all types of wine enthusiasts. He writes his blog unpretentiously and it is easily followed by everyone from other wine bloggers to wine lovers to wine marketers, while also being informative. He also thinks about those of us out there who don’t have an extremely high budget for wine and dining out, but at the same time brings us good quality wines which we can afford to try.

Blogs we like from confessions of a wino are

Chateau de Francs 2005
Italian Freemasons nobble me in Manchester

Your Favourites?

These are 3 blogs we like at Wine Wire, but we are always open to reading new blogs or websites. Do let us know in the comments which are your favourites & why.