Catena alta malbec 2020 (Catena Zapata)

Drink now or cellar for up to 10 years. No need to decant before serving. The Catena family are celebrities on Argentina’s winemaking scene thanks to the hard work of Nicolas Catena who made the first single varietal premium Malbec wine to be exported in 1994. Today the family winery is in the capable hands of Laura Catena, the fourth generation of Catenas to make wine in Argentina. Together with her father, Nicolas, Laura has spent years studying Mendoza and mapping its microclimates and sub-regions. Catena Alta is the family’s line of limited production single varietal wines which draw on the family’s comprehensive knowledge of Mendoza’s top winemaking sub-regions. Grapes are sourced from the very best rows of the estate vineyards including the world-famous Angelica and Adrianna vineyards which sit in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. Each plot is harvested separately when the grapes reach optimum maturity and vinified separately in fermentation tanks and oak barrels. The young wine is then aged for 18 months in French oak barrels before bottling. On the nose there are intense ripe plum, cassis and blackberry notes while the first sip reveals a full body, smooth tannins and rich dark fruit flavours which linger long on the tongue.