Varietal: 100% Malbec
Region: Mendoza – Argentina
Cost: $12 (SRP)
Winemaker’s Notes: Dark violet with brilliant purple colors. Good complexity in the nose with typical Malbec aromas of ripe fruit such as figs, plums, blackberries, and marmalades. Notes of vanilla, tobacco, coffee, and chocolate. Full-bodied red wine with sweet tannins, good structure, and long finish.
My Review: Given my fondness for the wines of South America, and for Malbec in general, the 2009 Santa Julia Reserva Malbec that I’d received as a sample seemed like a good choice to open for my third wedding anniversary last night when my wife and I were at home making dinner.
In case you forgot, back at the end of April I attended a lunch for Santa Julia wines and while everything was amazing, the 2009 Reserva Malbec was paired with a steak that had a lot of heat to it and made it hard to get a good feel for the wine. Fortunately the organizers were kind enough to send me another sample.
Since it was my wife’s and my anniversary, we decided that something a bit nicer was required for our home cooked dinner, so a pair of steaks and lobster tails found their way onto the grill while some potatoes cooked away in the oven. Given as the wine was paired with steak at the lunch, it seemed appropriate to pair it with steak when sampling it again for review here.
In the glass the wine was a dark red (though it still let light through when held up) with purple streaking throughout. On the nose I didn’t get a lot of aroma, just a very subtle aroma of general red berries.
In the mouth I got cherry and ripe fruit with a nice bright finish of light tannins. Paired with the dinner it was a good compliment to the grilled steaks and actually managed to not be completely overwhelming of the lobster tails. A good sign of a good wine is wanting more after the last drop has been poured and in that regard, the 2009 Santa Julia Reserva Malbec was a good wine.
When compared with the 2009 Santa Julia Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon I didn’t enjoy it as much, which is surprising given how much I enjoy Malbec, but I certainly wouldn’t shy away from drinking it again or recommending it to anybody wanting to try out a new Malbec.
If you can’t find a bottle of the 2009 Santa Julia at your local store you can always follow this link and have a bottle shipped directly to you.
