Malbec
Also known as Côt
Cahors, France
Originally a minor Bordeaux blending grape known as Côt, Malbec found its true expression in Cahors and later became Argentina's signature variety in the high-altitude vineyards of Mendoza.
Sensory profile
Characteristics
Flavor & aroma
At a glance
Production facts
Prevalence
Widely planted
Climate
Warm climate
Ripening
Mid season
Wine styles
Still
Where it's grown
Geography
Shaded areas are the state, province or département(s) containing each region, so they run wider than the appellations themselves.
Argentina
Mendoza
High-altitude vineyards produce the grape's modern signature style: ripe, plush, and approachable.
Luján de Cuyo (Mendoza)
The first Argentine appellation for Malbec, known for full, ripe wines from old vines in the foothills of the Andes.
Uco Valley (Mendoza)
Grown at high altitude, where cool nights give fresher, more floral and more mineral Malbec.
Maipú (Mendoza)
Old vines on the warmer plain near the city, making riper, softer and more generous wines.
France
Cahors
Known locally as the "black wine," producing deep, structured, more rustic reds than Argentine versions.
France
Bordeaux
A minor blending component today, historically more significant before the 1956 frost.
Background
Origin & History
Long known in France as Côt, the grape found its most distinctive historical expression in Cahors in southwest France, where it produced such deeply colored wine that the town's exports became known as "black wine." It also played a supporting role in Bordeaux blends for centuries, though never as a lead variety there.
In the 1850s, French agronomist Michel Aimé Pouget brought the grape to Argentina at the request of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, later president of Argentina, planting it in the developing vineyards of Mendoza. A catastrophic frost in 1956 devastated Malbec plantings back in France, sharply diminishing its role in Bordeaux, while in Argentina's high-altitude, sun-drenched vineyards it thrived, developing a riper, plusher style quite different from its French counterpart. By the early 2000s it had become Argentina's signature grape and a major international commercial success; the same 2009 DNA study that identified Merlot's parents also found Prunelard and Magdeleine Noire des Charentes to be Malbec's, making it a half-sibling of Merlot.
Lineage
Family tree
Ancestry above, descendants below. Click a related grape to explore its own lineage.