Bodega Catena Zapata

Nicola Catena first moved to Mendoza in 1898 and planted his first Malbec vines in 1902. These Malbec vines are very special, having been first brought over to Argentina from Bordeaux in the 1850s – before phylloxera destroyed these clones in both Bordeaux and Cahors.

Laura’s father Nicolás Catena was fascinated by the effects of altitude on the Malbec grape and experimented at higher and higher elevations, which he felt was where the greatest wines could be made. The region of Mendoza has a very long summer season, enabling the grapes to ripen slowly over a long period of time, producing concentrated flavours and tannins, while also retaining acidity due to the high diurnal shift in temperature at such high altitudes.

In the late 1990s Laura and her father Nicolás Catena realised that while Malbec had its origins in Bordeaux, it was wrong to ferment the grape in the same way as other Bordeaux varieties. At the time Malbec was often highly extracted, with long maceration times to draw out as much colour and tannin as possible.