Nicolás Catena Zapata
⏳ Drinking Window
2020 - 2035
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Grilled ribeye steak, roasted rack of lamb, or slow-cooked wild boar ragu.
✨ Technical Specifications
First released in 1997, Nicolás Catena Zapata represents a watershed moment for Argentine winemaking. Named in honor of the family's visionary patriarch who pioneered high-altitude viticulture, this flagship cuvée was crafted to stand alongside the world's greatest Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines. In historic blind tastings across London, Chicago, and New York in 2001, early vintages of this wine frequently triumphed over legendary Bordeaux First Growths and Napa cult classics, forever changing the global perception of South American wine. Sourced from the high-altitude clay soils of the La Pirámide Vineyard in Agrelo and the gravelly limestone of the Adrianna Vineyard in Gualtallary, the wine undergoes meticulous micro-vinification in small French oak barrels. It is celebrated for its profound structure, intense dark fruit, complex herbal undertones, and extraordinary mineral precision.
🍾 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
Cabernet Sauvignon (typically 60-75%), Malbec (typically 25-40%)
🍷 ABV
14%