Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
One sniff tells you plenty; there's attractive spice, coffee and leather to go with rich molasses and broad black-fruit aromas. The palate maintains balance due to fine, fresh acidity, and the flavor profile brings mocha, coffee, berry, plum and toast. Delicious, deep layered and refined. Will age for at least 5-6 years, but best from 2012-14.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe and concentrated, boasting vibrant aromas and flavors of crushed blackberry, raspberry and cassis, which unfold to reveal layers of spice, licorice and sweet oak as hints of graphite fill the long, juicy finish. This has power, but is well-balanced. Drink now through 2012.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Alta Malbec is a glass-coating opaque purple color with an inviting perfume of balsam wood, clove, cinnamon, lavender, black cherry and black raspberry. More structured and with greater density and aging potential than the "regular" bottling, it can be cellared for 5-7 years and will provide a drinking window extending from 2013 to 2022
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Wine & Spirits
This is an imposing malbec, full of black fruit aromas and flavors riding over an immense structure. The ambitious scale of the wine is matched by wild tannins that need time in bottle to integrate with the fruit. Tame this beast with a rib eye.
Bodega Catena Zapata is one of Argentina's high-altitude Malbec pioneers. The Catena family began making wine in Mendoza in 1902. Nicolas Catena, third generation family vintner, was one of the first to see the potential of Mendoza's mountain vineyards for producing high quality Malbec. In 1994, he became the first Argentine to export a world-class bottling of Malbec under the Catena label. Nicolas is joined by his daughter, Dr. Laura Catena, in their relentless pursuit of world-class quality from the family's high-altitude vineyards. Laura has done extensive work in introducing Malbec and other varietal plant selections, soil and climate analysis, and sustainable practices throughout Mendoza. Head winemaker, Alejandro Vigil, has been at Catena Zapata since 2002 and works with Laura and Nicolas to make wines that express the family's vineyards and palate.
Most distinguished and celebrated from Argentina’s Mendoza, Malbec has seen runaway success since the early 2000s. Mendoza’s agreeable, continental climate with hot, dry summers and cold snowy winters allows the perfect conditions for growing outstanding Malbec. This grape is easy to like for its lusty, deep flavors and aromas of blackberry, plum, red cherry, autumn spice and tilled earth. It’s easy to find delicious, fruit-driven, affordable everyday examples and in prices beyond, quite exceptional ones with dense, supple textures that make them capable of aging.