There are some images in life so disturbing that, even though you may avert your eyes from the source, the imprint remains burned into your retina before sweeping up the capillaries into your very nightmares. I’m thinking of the visuals of war, famine, animal cruelty, clowns on bicycles and Anthony Perkins dressed as his dead mother at the end of Psycho.
Are you local? Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough
And then there is this image of Diego Maradona and Carlos Tevez. I can’t recall a time when I’ve seen something as equally comical as it is grotesque. And thoroughly, thoroughly sinister.
The Maradona circus is in town as Argentina take on Scotland at Hampden and the air hangs fat with all the controversy that surrounds the greatest footballer of any generation. Most amusing has been the press coverage given to Terry Butcher over his assertion that he would refuse to shake Maradona’s hand if offered it.
Still smarting from the 20 year old “Hand of God” wound, Butcher (one of the least talented ballplayers England has ever seen) still regards Maradona as a cheat. Butcher is one of those little Englanders (albeit a quite tall one) who believes that England will win any tournament they enter on sheer will power alone.
A practitioner of the old “up and at ‘em” game, Butcher goes to bed in Captain Mannering pyjamas with a signed photo of John Le Mesurier by his bed light. Terry forgets that England were as poor in 1986 as they have been at any tournament since 1966 (with the exception of 1990, but that aberration was purely down to the John Barnes Rap).
He also forgets that in the very same game that Maradona caressed the ball with his hand, he also scored the greatest goal in the history of the game. Where were you when that one was hitting the onion bag, eh Terry? And just in case you’ve forgotten…
So, if Diego were to offer the hand of friendship what better way to do it than with a bottle of Argentina’s finest contribution to wine – the full throttle Malbec.
Malbec is the grape of many names – known as Auxerrois in Cahors, Cot in the Loire and Malbeck in Argentina,
Our growing interest in South American Wines over the past 20 years provided an opportunity for the Argentinean manifestation of this variety to establish itself in the UK but it also has an interesting past in mainland Europe too.
It used to be a main constituent in the famous Bordeaux blends but fell victim to the vicious 1956 French frost from which it never recovered. Nervous growers replaced it with more fashionable and more durable grapes. C’est la vie.
Salentein Malbec
Exported to Argentina the grape is widely grown and is established there in a stronger way than say Carmenere is in Chile (another European Export rarely grown in its homeland). The grapes tend to produces deep coloured wines with generous black fruit characteristics, balanced acidity and smooth tannins. It’s also good fortune that the wine is the perfect match for Argentina’s abundant supply of thick, succulent red steak.
My Malbec of choice is the Salentein Reserve Malbec, which I stumbled upon through a recommendation from Tom Cannavan at WinePages. Tom had just been on a trip to Argentina when I spoke to him last year and recommended the wine which, by the grace of the pricing gods, was on offer at Tesco. I got myself a case and it’s been a favourite since.
Is Malbec the Terry Butcher of wine? Nope. The grape may be full on but it has balance, can display finesse when asked to and plays well abroad.
Butcher on the other hand is a donkey. Or should that be ass?
Surely Peter Beardsley was the forerunner of wine-drinking soccer stars?