Three glasses of wine in a loose row on a weathered wooden table on a shaded stoep, Swartland

Buying Guides30 September 20264 min read

Malbec in South Africa: the ones we would pick

By South African Wines

Argentina gets all the attention, but the Cape has quietly turned Malbec into something fresher and more savoury. Three bottles we keep coming back to, and who each one suits.

Malbec in South Africa is still a footnote, and that is exactly what makes it worth your time. Most of us have an Argentine Malbec habit; very few UK drinkers have tasted what the Cape does with the grape. The answer, when it is done well, is a wine with a different accent altogether: brighter red fruit, a herbal or peppery lift, and structure that comes from the site rather than from a heavy hand with oak.

We taste through our small shelf of South African Malbec regularly, and three bottles do the job better than the rest. Here they are, and who each one is for.

Why South African Malbec tastes different

Two things shape these wines, and neither is the grape. The first is where the vines sit. In the hot, dry Swartland, granite-rich ground keeps vigour down, yields low and berries small, so flavour concentrates without the wine turning heavy. In Stellenbosch, cooler facings and iron-rich decomposed granite slow ripening and leave a savoury edge behind.

The second is restraint in the cellar. Cape Malbec tends to see French oak as a frame rather than a flavour, which is why you get cedar, violets and spice around the plum instead of a vanilla wall. If you have found Malbec a bit one-note before, this is the version that changes your mind.

Bellevue Estate Malbec maturing in the cellar, ageing and cellaring, South Africa Bellevue Estate Malbec maturing in the cellar, ageing and cellaring, South Africa

For a tuesday with a pizza: Here & There Malbec

This is the bottle we hand people who have never considered the Cape for Malbec. Boutinot's Here & There Malbec comes from Swartland vines on free-draining alluvial soils, and it is all redcurrant and raspberry, lifted by fresh acidity and finishing supple rather than chewy.

The winemaking is gentle and rather clever. Around thirty per cent of the fruit goes in as whole bunches and the rest as whole berries, fermentation starts naturally in stainless steel with a single pump-over a day, and only a small portion finishes its malolactic in older large-format barrels. Gentle structure, aromatic lift, no austerity.

For sunday lamb: Bellevue Estate Malbec

September is when the oven comes back into its own, and this is the Malbec for it. Most of the fruit behind the Bellevue Estate Malbec grows on the flat ground beside the Bottelary River, where deeper soils give fleshy, generous fruit. One block breaks ranks entirely: a south-facing hillside that ripens slower and cooler, and that is where the wine's savoury, herbal edge comes from.

In the cellar it gets a cold soak before fermentation, five days on skins with three pump-overs a day, then twelve months in French oak, a fifth of it new. The result is polish rather than power, with vanilla and spice holding up the plum and cherry instead of burying them.

Roast leg of lamb with rosemary and a sharp mint sauce is the obvious match, and it is obvious because it works. A Moroccan lamb tagine with apricots and coriander does something more interesting still, the herbal notes answering the spice. It is drinking well now and will hold three to five years in a cool cupboard, with those herbal aromatics likely to deepen. Best for: whoever cooks the Sunday roast.

Food pairing for Bellevue Estate Malbec, Roast leg of lamb with rosemary and mint sauce Food pairing for Bellevue Estate Malbec, Roast leg of lamb with rosemary and mint sauce

For the one you sit down with properly: Rustenberg Malbec

If the other two are about pleasure, the Rustenberg Malbec is about detail. The vineyards climb the red decomposed-granite flanks of the Simonsberg and Helderberg, where breezes off False Bay keep acidity intact and iron-rich soils lend a savoury grip you can feel on the finish.

Hand-picked fruit, an extended maceration of up to seven days, then fifteen months in French barrels with only around a tenth of them new. Enough wood for cedar and spice; never enough to shout over the plum and violet fruit. Tim Atkin MW gave it 90 and it has a Silver medal to its name, which is not why we stock it, but it does tell you the poise is not our imagination.

It is lovely now and has another six to eight years in it, the dark fruit slowly giving way to cedar, with leather and tobacco arriving behind it. Decant it an hour ahead, serve at 17 degrees, and give it braised beef short ribs with thyme, a porcini risotto, or aged pecorino with figs and walnuts. Best for: someone who knows their Argentine Malbec inside out and wants a surprise.

Which to open when

If you want one bottle for the week and one for the weekend, the Swartland wine handles anything with tomato in it and the Stellenbosch pair want roasted and braised meat. Serve all three a touch below room temperature: warm Malbec loses its freshness faster than almost any red.

And if this sends you looking for other Cape reds with their own accent, the grape to meet next is Pinotage, properly explained. Same story, different chapter: a familiar-sounding red that behaves nothing like you expect.

If you're curious about how far the Cape's reds go beyond Malbec, there is Cinsault, Syrah, Cabernet and Pinotage worth the same attention. Our South African reds are grouped so you can taste your way across the regions one bottle at a time.

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