La Consulta Malbec
⏳ Drinking Window
2024 - 2030
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Grilled ribeye steak, roasted lamb chops, beef empanadas
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the historic southern Uco Valley sub-district of La Consulta, this Malbec captures the unique spirit of a terroir named after a legendary consultation between General San Martín and the local indigenous leaders in 1816. Grown at altitudes exceeding 1,000 meters, the vines benefit from intense mountain sunlight and dramatic diurnal temperature shifts. Catena Zapata crafts this wine to showcase the classic profile of La Consulta: deep, dark fruit aromas intermingled with intense violet florals and a distinct mineral backbone. The soils here, rich in sand and clay with calcareous deposits, yield a wine of exceptional structural elegance, fine-grained tannins, and vibrant acidity, aged traditionally in French oak barrels.
🍾 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
13.5-14%