2008 Kaiken Malbec, Argentina

Color – Inky purple, nearly black

Nose – Blueberry, plum, vanilla

Taste – For our eleventh anniversary, my wife and I went to a restaurant we frequented during our dating years. While sitting perusing the menu, I decided to order a bottle of wine. My first choice, a Carmenere, was out of stock. I took a few more minutes and decided on this wine that I had seen quite a few places but always put off purchasing. Yes I paid three times what I would have paid at Total Wine, but I found out just how good Kaiken Malbec is; and why I should have been drinking it since I started this blog. First off this isn’t some mediocre, supermarket Malbec. This is a great big, amazing flavor, huge depth, Malbec. I am sure you can find it in some supermarkets, if that’s the case buy it now. I tasted it the first night with a plate of gyros and tzatziki; the wine tasted warm and spicy a wonderful complement to the red onions, kalemata olives and yogurt sauce. I finished off ¾ of the bottle and left it in my wine cellar for the past 4 days. Tonight I fired up the grill for some rib-eye steaks I had laying around. I went through two other wines, a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chilean Carmenere blend, before I poured the final glass of Kaiken Malbec to sample with the last quarter of my steak. How I wished I had tried this wine first. Bursting with flavors of blackberry, black plum, vanilla and clove this wine practically jumped up and down on my taste buds when I took the first sip. The mid-palate was firm, ripe tannins, elegant alcohol heat that made my tongue tingle, and dark cherry/blueberry flavors. The finish is medium in length with more dark berry flavors, along with delicate wood smoke, bittersweet chocolate, and tobacco. This is medium bodied, nudging into full-bodied just a little with warmth and texture one would expect from a really good Malbec.

Overall, this is hands down one of the best Malbecs I’ve ever tasted if not the best representation of this varietal. It has everything I love in a wine; depth, character, flavor, heat, tannins and astringency but all of those things are in perfect proportions. Normally I would shy away from non-fruit forward Malbecs, but this is a masterpiece of a wine. I would say this is a great QPR at 10 – 12 dollars a bottle depending on the store you shop at. I would advise making this your house Malbec, as it is inexpensive and amazing. A stand-alone wine or a wine to be paired with just about any dish. Keep this one in your cellar at all times.

Kaiken Wines

2008 Graffigna Centenario Malbec Reserve, Argentina

Color – Dark purple with a black core

Nose – Black currant, blackberry, brown sugar, caramel

Taste – A word of advice before we start, decant this wine for at least an hour before you begin to sip. Once you do start sipping be prepared for very strong flavors. This wine is not a fruit forward Malbec. Instead it starts with flavors of blueberry, blackberry, dark cherry, heat from the alcohol and leather. The mid-palate comes on strong with plentiful tannins, brown sugar, and muted spice box flavors. The finish is long and can seem a little harsh at times due to the tannins and heat that run through the entire wine. There are some dark fruit flavors on the finish (blackberry, plum, currant) as well as tobacco, bittersweet chocolate, and more leather. This is a full bodied wine and not an everyday Malbec as I’ve mentioned previously. There are fruit flavors but they are more even in this wine, blending with the tannins, heat and tobacco/leather flavors rather than overpowering them.

Overall, the wine is not bad when paired well and when sipped slightly chilled. As the wine warmed in my glass the tannins evened out, but the alcohol took a big step forward and really overwhelmed all of the other flavors. If you do purchase this wine (Costco for 8.99), make sure you serve it slightly chilled. This barely makes the grade for a wine that I would recommend. It has a pretty good QPR given that this wine’s quality is definitely there with a nice level of complexity and depth. This isn’t an inexpensive Malbec, but the flavors here won’t work for everyone. I won’t be seeking this out when I want a good all around Malbec, instead I will grab Alamos or Chateau Labrande, but if I am in the mood for something a little more robust and complex I’d buy this again. Let me know what you think.

Graffigna Wines