Inca Malbec 2007

Today I went down to Time Market for their happy hour, which starts at three o'clock and offers a modest selection of wines and draught beers at reasonable prices. It's been a while since I did something like this and it was a lot of fun. I ordered a glass of their cheapest red wine and sat down on their hidden back patio. The weather was perfect, about seventy-four degrees, and the wine tasted amazing.

The 2007 Inca Malbec (three dollars for a six-ounce pour!) was surprisingly good. The nose was bright and aromatic with spicy plum and just a hint of camphor. In the mouth the wine was firm, slightly tannic but nicely balanced with a delicious chewiness. The bright black fruit and just a hint of oak came together nicely with excellent acidity and grip, right through the midpalate. No hollowness here. A very integrated wine with modest varietal distinction and excellent drinkability. I'd have to say it's a steal. It retails for eleven dollars but expect it to go up in price over the next few years.

My score: 86+

Intentionality

Sitting here, wishing I was at Lyle, the rain coming down outside. It's Tucson, the kids watching Scooby Doo for the hundredth time, not knowing they could be sitting on the porch at Lyle, staring out at the eternal Huachucas, the impenetrable domain of deer and javelina and countless other forest dwellers. The wood stove stuffed with juniper cut from the hillside, the grass of the last season wet and weighted, waiting for warmer days. I look up at the hillside, contemplating grape vines, imagining the short rows well tended, the impossibility of it all, the diminutive harvest barely saved from birds, the wine—strong, imbalanced—which we nevertheless drink and force on our friends who smile and nod and think we're crazy. They're right, of course. It was all part of the plan.