aMaurice Malbec - 2005

I bought this particular bottle of wine back in November during the Fall Release weekend. You know, Fall Release? The weekend in November when Christophe of Cayuse invites his list to Walla Walla to pick up their futures and those of us who are not on the list take advantage of it in other fun ways? And it was - - a fun and very memorable Saturday for me. I tasted so many great wines! And one of those wines was a 2005 Malbec from aMaurice. It was a beautiful day, too. The sun was shining and there was a gorgeous view of the mountains from the winery.

The bottle has been sitting on top of the dining room wine rack and every time I walk by it beckons, “Yoo-hoo! Look at me! Unscrew me and pour me into a glass!” It finally got the best of me last Wednesday. I rationed it for three evenings and with every day, it became more interesting and just as tasty as the first night I opened it.

A beautiful inky plum color with a nose of dark fruit. It reminded me of a huckleberry coffee cake from a favorite family recipe made with the berries we picked during vacations in Montana. On the first evening I opened the bottle of aMaurice Malbec, the wine ended with a graham cracker finish. The next evening the wine seemed more intense with the same flavors, but with dark cocoa added. The third and final evening, the wine remained to be full bodied but with a pleasant bit of spice at the end. For me, I felt this wine, even on the third day, had all of the components that I enjoy in a red wine. Have you ever been sad to see a bottle of wine empty? And it wasn’t about the alcohol, it was all about the pleasure of the taste - - to the last drop.