Argentina Malbec - Cantena Zapata 2003

Another wine that is a first for me, the wine made out of the Malbec grape. It is a grape that is often used in Bordeaux wine for blending, but not a grape that is often made into wine by itself. Apparently it is because the wine made in France out of this grape are often very coarse and rustic (not an appealing flavor I take it). However, in Argentina, this grape has quite a bit of success. I was told that it is because of the high altitudes in the vineyards in Argentina, and thereby causing wines made out of Malbec to be very perfumed with silky texture.

I drank this wine (Catena 2003 Malbec Mendoza) this past Sunday night, after I got back home from work around 8pm. I ordered some takeout and also cooked this duck that I had defrosted but did not want to put back into the freezer. The combination between the duck and this wine turns out to be wonderful (who knew I am so good at pairing wine with food . . . or maybe mostly luck). The wine did not appear to me to have a highly perfumed note, but instead, the note was shy, timid and unassuming. However, the flavor of the wine will completely turn you upside down. It was powerful, focused, good structured and expressive. You feel lots of fruits on your palate providing trying to catch the attention of your tongue. The texture of the wine is soft, like silk (as advertised I guess). However, what really made this wine stand out was the sweet sweet tannins that gracefully attack your palate. You felt the wine was powerful, but not overly so because of the silky texture and the sweet tannins. There are lots of tannins, soft, sweet tannins (I cannot stress enough about the sweet tannins, which made the wine appears graceful). This is a wine that you can really drink all day. I felt the expressiveness and the powerfulness of the wine are nicely balanced against the softer side of the wine.

I thought the expressiveness of the wine and the sweet tannins balanced out nicely with the duck, which was seared for a couple of minutes after rubbing salt, pepper and lots of paprika on it, and cooked in the oven for at 400C for 4 minutes, accompanied by orange sauce (made out of orange juice). The duck has a lot of fat, and slightly sweet with the orange sauce, which worked well overall. All this was done in under 30 mins, so I guess, this was a highly successful 30 mins meal (and not taught by Rachel Ray).

Oh yeah, got a new blackberry at work too - it is now colored - how exciting . . . . . . . . . . . . .