April 17th 2012 is the second World Malbec Day – or Malbec World Day, as the website has it. To celebrate this, some bright sparks thought it would be a good idea to ship some Malbec grapes from the 2011 vintage over to the UK to see how a English winemaker would cope with them…

Chapel Down World Malbec Day “An English Salute” (sadly not available due to petty politics, but made in conjunction with Gaucho Restaurants)
Quite pale in colour compared with many Argentine versions, with bouncy, spicy cherry, berry and blackcurrant bounce plus a touch of violet, and while there’s a freshness that is reminiscent of (good) Beaujolais, there’s also a backbone of earthy tannins. All in all, a good gutsy glug – come on EU, this deserves a wider audience! S(-)