Malbec Recommendations for $15

Try Pascual Toso...Argentinian Malbec available at HEB and Specs for around $10. Great bottle of wine...very drinkable and fruit forward. Really nice finish.
 
El Felino Malbec is very good, about 20.00 at specs if u pic the cash option...i miss the good old days when it was 13 or so, now it has drawn a following and can be up to 25.00 in some places but it is one of my favorite malbecs.
 
I couldn't imagine spending $15 on a Malbec.
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I've brought some US$9-US$10 bottles home my last couple of trips and they were fan-tab-u-lous. For US$15 (~ AR$45), you can get an absolutely amazing wine down here...

...but then the price of the plane ticket kind of bumps up the per bottle costs.

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Trapiche is definitely cheap in BsAs... that's where we grabbed a bottle and found it very nice. I agree about Argentina vs. Chile... since visiting Argentina, I haven't had a drop of Chilean wine.
 
Napolean...

if you find any Vistalba Corte "C" wine at the stores, give that one a whirl. Should be US$10 or less. Should be a 2005 (maybe 2006) vintage. Also, La Flor is another great wine from Carlos Pulenta's (his winery makes the Vistalba & Tomero wines) brother's winery, Pulenta Estates. We visited both in Mendoza and were impressed with the quality and price.

It's really amazing how inexpensive (and extremely delicious) the wine is from the small boutiques around Mendoza.

One of the nicer wines I like that is available here is Catena Malbec 2005. It usually sells for $18 but is really good. El Felino (like someone else mentioned) is also tasty.

As far as years go...any of the Malbecs you buy that are 2007 or 2008 would be their low end/quality wines. You want to find vintages from 2005/2006 because that is the year the grapes were harvested and it means they've been aging in oak and/or the bottle for 12-18mos at least. Any of the new wines won't have as full of a flavor, IMO.
 
Well here's the first report. I had the-
"Vino Valbona Malbec" 2005 (from San Juan, AR) AR$12.85 (~US$5.28)

With the steak I cooked for dinner. I don't think I did the steak correctly because it was tough... and it shouldn't have been. I don't have a grill, so I was doing it in a skillet. But I didn't sear the crap out of it, like I did last year when I cooked this cut. I was sauteeing (sp?) some onions & mushrooms in butter and just slapped the steak in next to the others.

I had put a little bit of salt, fresh ground pepper, cumin, & papprika (?) on each side before tossing the steak in. I finished up with a little blue cheese on top of the steak that got soft by the time I put the steak on the plate. Tons of fat and I needed some wine to cut through it for my heart's sake.

I opened the wine, poured it into 3 glasses (my Argentine roommate/dueno- chico 36 and my English co-housemate- chica 28) for the three of us in the house. We talked about 3 to 4 minutes before we toasted, so there was a small amount of breathing time.

The wine was fairly low on tannins, but it wasn't quite as soft as I was hoping for. It was nice drinking with my steak, but if I was drinking it without eating, I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. HOWEVER, by the porteno & the Brit seemed to really enjoy it. They might have been saying that to be nice, but either way, they said it.

Any 3 year old wine that costs AR$12.85 can't be that good and this wasn't. However, I would compare it to about a US$12 bought in the Dallas at a grocery store. Maybe even in the US$15-US$18 range. But it really didn't compare to the wines I bought that were about AR$30 (US$10). Those were really great.

I'll report on the Malbec-Syrah when I get to it.

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I have opened the second bottle that I mentioned above.
2) "Trapiche 'Broquel' Malbec-Syrah" 2006 (from Mendoza, AR) AR$13.51 (~US$4.50)

The word "FRESH" keeps going through my mind. I first heard this adjective for wine when I opened a Chianti on a picnic date with a girl who was 26 (I was 24) and who had just moved back to Dallas from San Francisco. It is not really a compliment.

Low tannins, high fruit taste. It seemed like it needed another year or three.

I probably won't buy it again, but I did find a second use for it. I added a little to my store bought spaghetti sauce. It helps.
 
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