Bodega Catena Zapata was founded in 1902 by Italian immigrant Nicola Catena, who passed on the winery to his son Domingo. Domingo’s son, Nicolás Catena Zapata, was born in 1939. When he was in his 20s, he went to Columbia University to get a business management PhD in New York, then went on to Berkeley. Nicolas was one of the first to introduce certain European and US winemaking techniques to Argentina and was instrumental in putting high-altitude, cool temperature Malbec from Mendoza on the map. Currently, Laura Catena, his daughter and the fourth generation of the family, runs the winery.
The Catena Alta label is limited production of single varietal wines made from a selected few rows in the Catena family’s vineyards. The grapes used to produce the wine aresourced from Lot 18 of the Angélica vineyard, Lot 4 of the La Pirámide vineyard (which appears on the label), Lot 1 of the Nicasia vineyard, Lot 6 of the Angélica Sur vineyard and Lot 9 of the Adrianna vineyard. Whole berries are hand loaded into small format fermentation bins. Lots from each vineyard are treated individually and then aged for 18 months in French oak.
2017 was year with spring frosts and cooler weather. The yields were very low in 2017 (55% of the normal amount of grapes produced).
I purchased this wine at Everything Wine for $59.99 (not including tax). This wine has a 92 pt Wine Spectator rating and 12,500 cases of the wine were produced.
Sorry, I butchered the word “Catena”…it sounds like I am saying “Cantina”.
For more information about this winery, please visit their website at
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