Colores del Sol 2009 Malbec

Producer: Bodegas Colores del Sol

Varietal: Malbec

Region: Mendoza, Argentina

Vintage: 2009

Tasted: July 29, 2012

ABV: 13.5%

I have always appreciated technology, but I do insist on standing athwart the remarkable lack of perspective that people allow it to introduce. For example, I have altogether too many friends who plan get-togethers to play "Words With Friends" or some such game with each other. Why not just take out a Scrabble board? "Geez, Dan, what is this, the 1800s or something?" Well then why do they have to get together? Could they not each just sit at home and play from there? "What are we, losers?" Ah, well.

But even I can be swayed. My friends used to listen in bewilderment as I waxed indignant that a phone is a phone, a camera is a camera, a computer is a computer, and people ought to know the difference. Then last holiday season I was given an iThingy, and have not looked back. What a keen gizmo. Why, just last week, my parents were on vacation in the Bay Area, and swooned so much over a bottle of 2010 Colores del Sol Malbec that they just had to share it with me. So out came their iThingy, and within twenty seconds I was opening an e-mail with a high-resolution picture of the bottle on my own iThingy as I walked down the block back on the East Coast. Remarkable!

As much as I am taken with this recent example of technology, they were ten times as taken with that Malbec. But alas! Upon their return, they could only find the 2009. Swill - swill, they say! - compared to the 2010 they had tried in San Francisco. Pour it out! But I begged some patience, and it was granted. Evidently aeration did not help them like it any more, and down the drain it eventually went. But, that did give me the chance to conduct a proper tasting so that I can review it, and I am very glad that it did.

If the 2009 Colores del Sol Malbec was swill compared to the 2010 of the same, then the 2010 must have been nothing short of legendary. The 2009 may not be the best thing since crushed grapes, but it is certainly a lovely, rewarding glass of wine. In fact, it is pretty darn good. It has a subdued aroma of sweet, fresh cherries, and a flavor, similarly subdued, of strawberries. What puts it all together are the tannins, which flow about themselves and the fruit notes as the wine hits the palate. It is not quite a dry wine, but it is light; structured firmly enough without being heavy. Imagine a building being put up with a framework of titanium as opposed to cinder-blocks. Finally, the finish is a wisp of cranberry and pomegranate, nothing major, just enough to wish you well until your next sip.

After breathing for about twenty minutes, this Malbec gets a little richer, but not enough to alter the experience. The wine is still sufficiently light for the flavors to frolic playfully on the tongue. The nose turns to hints of strawberry and rose-petals. The former note remains when the wine is sipped, and the latter gives way to hints of hibiscus. Finally, the finish gives cherries an encore, back again at the very end after an appearance at the very beginning. The tannins have not gone anywhere during this time, keeping things together and flowing seamlessly, smoothly, agreeably.

The wine has a profound ruby red color, with just a glance of plum on the edge of the shimmer. It is the kind of tinct that compliments fabulously the olfactory massage that one is already getting.

Really, it was all my parents could do to keep me aware of the fact that there is something the same but different that is supposed to be sooooooooo much better. I was busy getting wrapped up in how wonderful this vintage is that I was tasting. They plan to move heaven and earth to find the 2010. And that is all well and good. But as it is, I still greatly enjoy the 2009.