Winemaker Notes
Pair with roast veal with chestnuts and shiitake mushroom.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Catena Zapata icons begin with the 2008 Nicasia Vineyard Malbec, which spent 18 months in 100% new French barriques. A glass-coating opaque purple/black, it offers up a super-fragrant nose of toasty new oak, earth notes, exotic spices, black cherry and black raspberry. This is followed by a plush, layered, intensely flavored, rich wine with potential complexity, precision, balance, and a seamless finish. Give it 4-6 years of cellaring and drink it through 2028.
-
Wine Spectator
A dark, ripe, jammy red that remains fresh, with good cut to the dark blackberry pie, fig paste and plum pudding notes that pick up hints of mesquite and espresso on the focused, savory finish. Drink now through 2014. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 300 cases imported.
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.