Page 77 - GrapevineMarApr 2022
P. 77
International News
A Brief History of
the Malbec
Excerpt from Malbec Mon Amour. By: Laura Catena and Alejandro Vigil
I n Argentina, many people think of Malbec as a reflected in the number of different names it was
local variety. And those who know a little more given over the years. In the mid 1960s, the French
about its history see the grape as an immigrant ampelographer Pierre Galet identified more than
whose splendid adaptation makes her Argentine a thousand different terms for Malbec depending
through and through. This would be all well and on where it was grown or whomever introduced it
good if it weren’t for the fact that Malbec has been to the region in question. For instance, it’s known
so extensively documented in France’s wine bibli- as Côt in the Loire Valley, Malbec or Malbec Doux
ography. It is impossible to deny the grape’s glori- in Gironde, Luckens or Lutkens in Médoc, Pressac
ous European past. in the Libourne area of Bordeaux, Côte Rouge
in Entre-deux-Mers and Lot-et-Garonne, and
Malbec’s long, eventful history in France is Auxerrois or Côt Noir in Cahors, capital of the for-
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