Tracing Malbec’s Unlikely Journey from French Also-Ran to Argentine Superstar
Bill Jensen, sommelier for Michelin-starred Washington DC restaurant Tail Up Goat, and her sister Reveler’s Hour, is a breakout star of the Covid-19 Pandemic with his virtual wine school. In an effort to stay in touch with his regulars and soon-to-be regulars, he launched #StayHome Wine School on March 29th, and continued every Sunday at 4 pm EST for 40 straight weeks. In the very beginning, it was BYOB. Later, Bill would recommend bottles to be purchased at various wine shops. By week 9, TUG and RH reopened and local wine school students could shop there, first for bottles and later also for flights.
To be added to the newsletter and gain access to the class each week, email your request to: wineschool@tailupgoat.com
Notable quotes from this lesson:
I love a little bit of overwrought prose
You thought you were drinking cheap, supermarket wine. Turns out you were drinking world history.
To the extent that you dig deeply enough, and study wine history passionately enough, you are really studying western history. If you dig deeply enough you can understand really profound truths. Not just what is in the glass. But as we as a species came to develop our civilizations over time.
This picture that we have of Malbec as this Jammy Fruit Punch Jungle Juicy Kind of Thing from the lowest supermarket aisle – this is not that.
Malbec is the lead in the pencil of Bordeaux
If you want to impress winemakers, ask about the diurnal shift
Malbec has been really successful at building their brand and stolen market share away from California Merlot. Haters gonna hate.
I like arbitrary constraints when it comes to wine lists
Prohibition happened and fucked everybody over
The longer you do skin contact the more you invite malfeasance from these biological factors
We are brothers in arms for the sake of Intellectual inebriation
This week’s poem was A Compass by Jorge Luis Borges
In Bill’s weekly recap email, he said this:
– CONCRETE EGGS!!! They’re so hot right now! Read all about it from Wine Folly:
– Read this strangely riveting four-part series on the history of Malbec from The Life of Grapes:
– Wine Terroirs has this exhaustive portrait of Clos Siguier in Cahors and its “dream country made of small, winding roads going through an untouched landscape of medieval villages.”
– Pablo Lacoste gives you overwrought prose on Malbec’s “journey full of vitality and dramatic tension,” brought to you by Wines of Argentina:
– VinePair considers the merits of wine made at altitude:
– Renaissance Woman Laura Catena talks past, present, and future of Malbec in Argentina: