Adrianna Vineyard River Malbec
⏳ Drinking Window
2025 - 2038
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Grilled ribeye steak, roasted rack of lamb, rich mushroom risotto
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the legendary Adrianna Vineyard in Gualtallary, situated at an extreme altitude of nearly 4,500 feet in the Uco Valley, this wine is sourced from a highly specific parcel named for an ancient, dry riverbed. Covered with oval, calcium carbonate-coated stones, this unique terroir acts as a heat regulator, absorbing warmth during the sunny Andean days and radiating it back to the vines during the freezing mountain nights. This extreme environment, once dismissed by traditionalists as too cold for grape growing, forces the Malbec vines to develop thick skins and deep roots. The resulting wine is a masterclass in mountain viticulture, celebrated for its remarkable freshness, intense floral aromatics, and a distinct, chalky minerality that sets it apart from lower-altitude expressions.
🍾 About the Producer
Founded in 1902 by Italian immigrant Nicola Catena, Bodega Catena Zapata is the preeminent pioneer of modern Argentine viticulture. In the 1980s and 1990s, third-generation visionary Nicolás Catena Zapata revolutionized the domestic industry by venturing into extreme high-altitude Andean terroirs, most notably planting the famed Adrianna Vineyard in Gualtallary at nearly 1,500 meters above sea level. Today directed by Dr. Laura Catena and celebrated winemaking director Alejandro Vigil, the estate pairs rigorous micro-terroir research through the Catena Institute of Wine with precision viticulture across alluvial, limestone-laced gravel soils. Fermentations frequently incorporate whole clusters and indigenous yeasts, vinified in concrete, oak foudres, and French barriques to preserve freshness, structural nuance, and site-specific tension. Benchmark bottlings such as the flagship Nicolás Catena Zapata, Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae Malbec, and Adrianna Vineyard White Stones Chardonnay stand as global archetypes of high-elevation South American fine wine.
🍇 Grapes
Malbec
🍷 ABV
13.5-1%