The hottest varietal in the U.S. wine market is Malbec, grown in Argentina and known for making red wines that are modest in cost and approachable in flavor.
According to recent data from The Nielsen Company, Argentine wines saw a 59.6 percent growth in dollar volume percent change on the U.S. market—by far the largest experienced by any foreign wine-producing country on our market that Nielsen tracks—in the last year ending December 12, 2009. Chile saw an increase of 6.8 percent and Spain, 3.3 percent, in the same period. For two of Argentina’s biggest competitors on the import side, these low, single-digit growth rates pale in comparison. Malbec was also up 55.7 percent in dollar volume percent change over the 13 weeks ending December 12, 2009 and 42.8 in a four-week period ending the same date, according to The Nielsen Company. [From Feisty Malbec.]
Here are a few Malbecs we’ve reported on.