The affordable Argentinian malbec that tastes like a vision
Bodegas Catena Zapata’s wines have long been out of reach for bargain shoppers, but you can still get a taste of in wine history through their value-oriented Alamos wines like this one.
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Alamos Malbec Mendoza, Argentina
$11.99
13.5% alcohol
PLCB Item #3027
Sale price through April 28, regularly $13.99
Making excellent wine outside of Europe has often required vision. In California, it was the Hungarian immigrant Agoston Haraszthy who turned his fine wine dreams into reality in the late 19th century at Sonoma’s Buena Vista winery; he eschewed the fashionable grapes of the time to plant prestige vines like cabernet sauvignon from Bordeaux. His exploits inspired Robert Mondavi a century later, kicking off California’s fine wine revolution in the 1970s. In both cases, everyone thought these men were crazy to invest so much into an uncertain wine future.
In Argentina, two similar innovators put the Mendoza region on the fine wine map and elevated malbec — also originally from Bordeaux — into the pantheon of the world’s top wine grapes. In 1902, an Italian immigrant named Nicola Catena planted malbec in Mendoza, firmly convinced that this minor blending grape could thrive in the foothills of the Andes. Almost a century later, his grandson Nicolás Catena Zapata would produce the first Catena Malbec in 1994, a luxury-tier 100% malbec wine that earned rave reviews and introduced the wine world to this grape’s — and Argentina’s — exceptional potential for quality wine. Bodegas Catena Zapata’s wines have long been out of reach for bargain shoppers, but you can still get a taste of this family’s place in wine history through their value-oriented Alamos wines like this one, the top-selling Argentine malbec in the U.S. market. There are plenty of affordable malbecs available nowadays, but Alamos still leads the pack. Deep, dark, and tinged with purple around the edges, this midweight, dry malbec delivers an impressive degree of concentrated blueberry and black cherry fruit flavors with an earthy undercurrent reminiscent of roasted beets and a faint perfume of candied violets.
Also available at:
Kreston Wine & Spirits in Wilmington, Del., $9.99
Total Wine & More in Wilmington and Claymont, Del., $8.47
Joe Canal’s in Marlton, $10.99