Trapiche Malbec wine from the Argentine

I liked the taste of the Trapiche Pinot Noir that evening so, when a friend asked what to serve at a rather special birthday, I suggested he contact the distributor to buy a case (or two) — which he did, or rather, I did it for him.

No good deed goes unrewarded. Imagine my surprise when the distributors of Trapiche wines arrived at my door with the oaken box I hope you’re seeing in the photograph containing a bottle of Trapiche Malbec Single Vineyard 2005, a brochure on this new wine, and a DVD that, unfortunately wouldn’t play in my Mac.

I spent some time admiring that box while telephoning a friend, persuading her to share that bottle over dinner with me — which we did on Saturday night, in her house high on a Cascade hillside with the background of the waning moon, the muffled sounds of a Carnival fete, the lights of Port-of-Spain and container ships in the Gulf far below. My friend opened the wine, I poured from the surprisingly heavy bottle.

We admired the rich, dark red colour of this new wine made from grapes grown within sight of the snow-capped Andes. I couldn’t detect any ‘tears’ running down the glass, but one could discern the scent of dried plums as one sniffed before taking a sip — and then another.

I found this Trapiche Malbec 2005, made only from grapes grown by Fausto Orellana in his vineyard in La Consulta (hence the appellation ‘Single Vineyard), went well with the pork roast my friend had cooked and my own apple crumble. In fact it was no hardship, none at all, to drink a couple, maybe three glasses of this new wine aged 18 months in new French oak barrels that was only released on the market here this year — or maybe late last year.

I wish I could say we finished the bottle, but I had to drive home down the twists, turns and hairpin bends of Hillside Avenue. I reckon we only left a couple of glasses in the bottle for my friend to enjoy the next day (I thought that was only fair as I left her to wash the wares) and I very much look forward to renewing my acquaintance with the new, unpretentious, very pleasant, not too dry, not too sweet, but just right table wine — Trapiche Malbec 2005 — in the near future.

A final note in these belt-tightening days: The wines of Argentina are relatively inexpensive (they would be cheap indeed, were it not for prohibitive taxes), in fact they’re a real bargain, especially as Malbec is believed to be a variety of red wine with the most polyphenols — the antioxidants resveratrol and flavonoids in red wine — for those with an eye to their health to drink a glass — or two a day.