Don't cry for me Argentina...
It's an interesting phenomenon that things transported to different climates and terroir behave so differently. Cuban seed would be a fine example, where the identical species of plant tastes completely different when cultivated outside of Cuba.
Vines transplanted in the New World do the same thing. The classic example would be the finely structured Syrah grape form the Rhone that becomes the fruit forward, jammy, almost unrecognizable Aussie Shiraz.
Malbec was widely cultivated in France prior to phylloxera, and following the decimation of Bordeaux in the 19th century, was only modestly replanted and became overshadowed by Merlot and the Cabernets. A little to the South East, close to Bergerac is the Cahors region, Malbec remains king in the old world. Heavy, structured, tannic reds to have with your steak. Once in the New World, the same vines become fruit forward and less tannic. Argentine Malbec from Mendoza is all the rage.
Well I have a thing about Old World wines, especially with food. The Cahors I had last night would be a fine example of a wine for a meat dish. Now the
assemblage of this particular wine has a dose of Tannat in it too (a brutally tannic grape), so we can't blame all of the backbone on Malbec.
If you haven't had a decent Cahors, I would suggest trying some. (The caveat being - only with food - some juicy steak, a hearty stew or duck confit.) Where the Bordelais have largely given up on Malbec, in Cahors they have persisted, and it really pays off.
Not big in North America - overshadowed by Mendoza - too bad really....
