Driftwood Artifacts Margaret River Malbec 2021

More stand-alone Malbec please! More Malbec that doesn’t hide behind Cabernet and its friends but works alone and proud, displaying glorious sweet plummy fruit, generosity of purpose in the glass and comes equipped with tannins firm enough to go the distance. In other words, it would be really nice to see more wines like the ’21 Artifacts Malbec from Margaret River. The Malbec grape clearly blossoms in the maritime region. The colour is deep purple-garnet and intense. Aromas of licorice, sage, violet, plum, cherry and baking spices usher in a fruit-forward, herb and spice-fuelled wine. Earthy, robust tannins help guide the wine long but never intrude. Winemaking has read the under-rated red grape well here, allowing it space to set its credentials out. A wonderful example of what the grape can do solo.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic