2005 Croix Du Mayne Cahors

It's a good idea to give all of your red wines (and you know, even your whites to a lesser extent) some time to aerate - if you don't want to mess around with a decanter, at least pour a glass or two and let them sit for an hour before you start drinking.

When I first popped open this $10 bottle, I took a sip and thought it was disgustingly sour - so much I wasn't sure I could drink it. Realizing I was getting ahead of myself, I waited two hours and lo and behold all that blew off leaving us with a groingabblingly good deal..

Basically a raspberry thing is going on here on the nose with all sorts of crazy earth/mud and even some barnyard.

Very nice - potent acid, definitely with a big enough punch that you may want some food with it. Light and tart cherries, with a punch of blackberry, black pepper, anise, and nice cigar box notes. The second day a big punch of eucalyptus came through with cherry and anise and the rest more or less blowing off.

Cedar and cherry stick around for a while on the finish.

I just looked this one up and it's 85% Malbec - how about that? Damn fine - unfortunately I have no clue where I bought this otherwise this is an obvious recommendation.

Wine: 8
Value: Yes.

2006 Luigi Bosca Malbec Reserva

You know, I grabbed this fairly recently, but have no idea where or for how much. Trader Joe's? Maybe? It couldn't have been more than $12 or so....it may have been far less in fact.

A mentholy mediciney nose.

Big eucalyptus on the palate – like really big, huge, inching very close to unpleasantness. Even with plenty of airtime, this is still a difficult wine. There is some fruit, mostly strawberry, but it's all funky and green – mint, olives,

The finish is minty with more medicine qualities.

Well, if you like a lot of medicine qualities, then sure. Otherwise, I can't recommend it.

Wine: 4.5
Value: Nah

2004 Flourish Malbec Mendoza

This is the last of our Flourish bottles - a low cost, organic line distributed by Albertson's grocery stores.

First day:
Cherry, earth, and oak on the nose.

Quite a bit of menthol on this one – oak and cherry, but the eucalyptus is quite potent.

More eucalyptus on the finish. I suppose this one is good if you care for a lot of menthol in your wine.

Second day:
Chocolate and cherry on the nose.

The menthol is still present but far more sedate. More chocolate, plum, cherry, and a bit of oak.

Cedar and menthol on the finish.

A simple wine but far far better on day two. I'd advise giving this several hours of airtime before consuming. I paid about $5 when this was on sale, but regular price is closer to $11. A solid value at $5, and a borderline acceptable one when closer to $10.

2004 El Felino Malbec

I figured since we dumped a Malbec we should open another of the same varietal. We tried this one at a tasting a few months back and thoroughly enjoyed it. This one set us back $16.

The nose is powerful with pine and herbal notes.

The palate has some strong blueberry–not the large grape sized ones, the tiny ones that just assault your palate when you eat them. I’m also getting some cherry and a bit of chocolate as well. Since the nose had so much wood I was expecting more on the palate, but it’s far in the background. Nice, chewy tannins on this heavier medium bodied Malbec.

I felt my first glass had strong anise on the finish, almost like you just finished a glass of absinthe....as it opens, I get far more chocolate.

An excellent wine and one I’d recommend without hesitation.

2006 Argenta Malbec

This brings us to the end of our $4 Trader Joe's selections. I let this one sit for two hours before making these notes.

The nose is a bit flat with nothing more than alcohol.

The palate has a very unpleasant glycerin mouthfeel. It's a strange wine, everything is muted....there's some fruit and oak but I can't really put my finger on much. It’s jammy, there’s no acid, this is below Yellow Tail in terms of quality.

The finish has no flavor but more of that strange coating.

With the very strange feel of this wine, I decided to dump a glass, and rinse it in hot water, dry it thoroughly, swirl some wine around in the glass, dump that, and retry it....I was hoping that perhaps some soap residue was affecting this one----sadly, no.

I was optimistic that we could do alright with an Argentinian wine at this price point, but no such luck. The cheap wine experiment was a failure...I’d like to say I’ll never be tempted to buy a bunch of dirt cheap wine from Trader Joe’s again but I’m sure it will happen again. Hopefully in the next round I’ll have better luck.

2005 Terrazas de los Andes Malbec

I felt like something a bit different than the big named reds so I grabbed a Malbec from Argentina. I picked this up for $10.

Lots of oak on the nose and not much else. Mild tannins, plenty of earth, some spice, a little berry fruit, and a bit of tobacco on the palate. The finish lingers with raspberries. It's a smooth wine, it's light-medium bodied, and quite easy drinking.

This is pretty much the ideal wine to bring to a dinner party or serve to guests...the price is right, the wine is excellent, not too complex, and not too heavy so it can pair with almost anything. This wine is certainly case worthy....I look forward to moving into a larger place where we can stock up on wine like this.