With regard to high alcohol wines the ‘big but balanced’ argument is one that I have never bought. So what if it is balanced? That only makes things worse, for there is no hot prickle of alcohol on the finish to warn you that this one’s a monster – you will have to wait until the following morning to discover that. Masses of fruit, masses of tannin, masses of alcohol, masses of oak, masses of mass. Sure, it is balanced, but only in the sense that an Olympic super-heavyweight weightlifter is balanced. What about a bit of elegance?

Absence of elegance was brought home to me most forcibly recently in Argentina when tasting, to the best of my recollection, the first table wine that I have come across labelled at 16% alcohol. Moreover it was buffeted and buttressed by lashings of new oak which, curiously, was not especially obvious (the wine was balanced, you see). The palate was simply assailed by bigness from every quarter.

The wine was Lindaflor, La Violeta Malbec 2007 from the Monteviejo estate and any notion that this is just the wine to pair with a sizzling steak or hearty casserole is misguided. With that sort of food you want something with enough structure to match the strong flavours but which will also refresh the palate between mouthfuls, not swamp it with further riches. It was such a massive wine that I wondered: if by some kind of sorcery the flavour could be cut in half would that yield any elegance? Perhaps adding water would help.

Tags: Argentina, Alcohol