£12.99, down from £16.99 until 1 June, Waitrose
I was going to recommend this Malbec a few weeks ago but then spotted the offer that started yesterday: £4 off from now until 1 June – too tempting to resist, especially as the weather hasn't exactly been demanding quintessential summer wines recently.
The grapes are from the Bodega Luigi Bosca's estate vineyards at altitudes of 900–1100 metres in the Mendoza sub-regions of Luján de Cuyo and Valle de Uco, the latter giving freshness and liveliness to the ripe fruit, power and concentration.
The nose is both appetising and distinctive: whiffs of gunflint, minerals and woodsmoke woven with blueberries, violets and beeswax. The palate adds a blackcurrant note to the blueberry fruit, a smoked paprika and black pepper spicy accent, orange zest, well-integrated oak (French barrels, 12 months) and tannins that are silky but firm enough to give backbone.
It's ready to drink now but you could cellar it for three or four years. Either way, it's a meaty wine that can take any amount of steak but which is also good with lamb (especially shanks), slow-roast pork, duck or cassoulet, including vegetarian cassoulet.
Luigi Bosca Malbec Selección de Vistalba 2018, Mendoza, Argentina
£12.99 on offer until 1 June 2021, then back to £16.99, Waitrose