Malbec, Selfies & Pinata Fun with Ferngrove Wines

You may have seen my post last month about Malbec World Day and how I was planning to celebrate here in Perth. Well the day finally came! Friday April 17th 2015 marked the day that people all around the world were celebrating the glorious red grape that is Malbec (check out my grape profile on Malbec here).

The lovely team at Ferngrove Wines from the Frankland River in WA’s Great Southern wine region invited Mr. Spittoon and myself along to their Malbec celebrations at Terrace Hotel in the Perth CBD. We also convinced a couple of friends to come with us (it wasn’t hard to convince these winos) who were absolutely fantastic in helping write our collaborative tasting notes which you’ll find below.

Naturally we were not spitting, it was Friday and well we were there to have fun and celebrate Malbec. The team at Ferngrove were super awesome and put up with our ‘celebratory’ shenanigans.

We were lucky enough to have great chats with all the team from the lovely Nadia, the Marketing & Events Coordinator to Kim Horton the Chief Winemaker and yes I hate to say it, I even had a couple of selfies!

We seemed to hang out near the tasting table most of the evening, which is only natural. However we did pop over to the paella stand for some tasty goodness aaaaannnnnddd I was simply drooling over the mini Malbec sorbet cones that were going around. Absolutely delightful and yes I did have a ‘few’ of these 🙂

Sadly we missed out on the churros but it’s safe to say we sipped on our fair share of Malbec to make up for that. The fabulous Quintento Sao Paulo band was playing in the background which helped set the scene and atmosphere for the night.

So enough of my blabbing, let’s get stuck into the wines. As mentioned earlier, a big thanks to my wine tasting team for their input – they had some absolutely brilliant insights!

Ferngrove 2014 Malbec Rose ($20)

Neon pink on the eye (being a pink girl myself, I was in love with the colour!). On the nose it has beautiful strawberry, fairy floss & sour raspberry aromas. I honestly thought from the colour it was going to be a sickly sweet rose, alas it was brilliantly dry and soooo approachable. It actually had a rather meaty body with flavours of rocket leaf and cranberry. Totally salivating!

Ferngrove 2013 Malbec ($20)

On the eye it’s reminiscent of when your fingers are stained with cherry juice after devouring them by the ton of Christmas. Aromas of wild berries, potpourri and mixed herbs on the nose. Lovely mellow tannins on the palate with flavours of liquorice, black fruits, mahogany and interestingly enough greek yoghurt with a mouth puckering finish. We were told this is a limited release wine, so get in quick as it’s fantastic value at $20!

Ferngrove ‘Orchid King’ 2012 Malbec ($32)

Dark plum with purple hues on the eye. Super powerful cherry aromas alongside dark chocolate and sweet spices. On the palate it has chalky tannins, fresh black plums, French oak and liquorice. It was fantastic how both the reds were decanted at the event as this bad boy definitely needed it. If you like a full-bodied intense Malbec, like myself, then this one is for you!

Ferngrove 2011 Sparkling Malbec ($25)

Australia you are definitely slowly convincing me that Sparkling reds are not too bad at all. I could definitely see me cracking into a bottle or two of this with a BBQ meal. Deep nearly opaque purple on the eye with vibrant lively purple bubbles. I found the nose fairly closed on this one with slight aromas of plums, however as this was at the end of the tasting it could very well be because my senses were a touch dulled from the previous tastings! On the palate it was full of cherries, chai tea, red grapes (no joke!) and gooseberry with a lovely silky mousse. The finish has a grapefruit freshness.

A big thanks to the Ferngrove team for inviting Mr. Spittoon and I along, we had a brilliant time between the fabulous wine line-up, the food and the atmosphere. The wine which had me absolutely smitten was definitely the rose, which I have to admit was a complete surprise to me as I’m typically not big into my roses!

For more information on the Ferngrove wines, please check out their website or follow them on Facebook & Twitter.