As Phylloxera ravaged the vineyards of Europe in the late
1800s, there was a wholesale exodus of winemaking families to the new world,
unable to make a living on their ancestral estates. A number of French families
migrated to California to work the nascent vineyards in Napa and Sonoma; a
large quotient of Prussian families found themselves in Australia’s newly
colonized Barossa Valley (it’s why so many wine houses there have German
names). For several centuries the only people that could emigrate to Argentina
were Spaniards, but after the Argentine civil war ended in 1861 they accepted
migrants from other European countries, and Italian families, feeling unwelcome
in other lands and fleeing an outbreak of malaria in Rome, found themselves
moving en masse to Argentina. Between 1875 and 1975 70 million Italians settled
in Argentina, particularly in Mendoza, bringing modern-ish winemaking know-how
to a wine region whose viticultural practices hadn’t been updated since the
time of the Jesuit missionaries. One of those migrants was Nicola Catena.
The first Catena vineyards were planted by Nicola in 1902
and his son Domingo greatly expanded those holdings throughout the 20th
century, but it was the grandson Nicolás Catena Zapata who transformed the
family business – indeed all of Mendoza – initially by running away from it.
Fleeing economic and political turmoil (euphemism), Nicolás accepted a position
as an economics professor at USC Berkeley in the 1980s, where he fell head over
heels in love with Napa. He admired both the quality of their red wines and the
chutzpah required to challenge and vanquish the French in the famed 1976 Paris
Tasting, an act of boldness that his hometown of Mendoza – at that time a large
scale producer of cheap-ass happy juice – would and could not attempt. He
returned home determined to change this.
What seems predetermined now was contemporaneously nutso:
with no supporting evidence or precedent, Nicolás began planting Malbec
(re-imported from Cahors, he didn’t use the local clones) and Cabernet
Sauvignon (inspired by Napa) at altitudes that nobody had ever tried –
his own vineyard manager told him that his grapes wouldn’t ripen – in untapped
areas like Gualtallary (while most Mendoza vineyards lined the valley floor).
He then selected the vines that produced the smallest berries and planted those
clones even higher. At the heights of Gualtallary Alto he founded his
family’s crown jewel: the Adrianna Vineyard, named after his eldest
daughter. The vast diurnal shifts and solar intensity (for every 1,000 feet
gain in elevation, the level of UV rays increase by 10-12%) turned Nicolás’
grapes into battle-hardened warriors, full of flavour and structure, and the
new Catena wines caught the world’s attention, especially Robert Parker’s (see
below).
Nicolás’ daughter Adrianna is a history professor in London
and his daughter Laura moonlights as a GP in San Francisco but the whole family
works towards advancing fine wine in Mendoza (and comparatively making everyone
else feel like underachievers), whether at Catena Zapata or various other
family projects (El Enemigo, Luca, CARO, etc). Nicolás Catena Zapata is inarguably
the father of Argentinian Fine Wine.
Another descendant of Italian immigrants named Don Alberto
Zuccardi made his way to Mendoza with one goal in mind: to get rich selling
cement pipe irrigation. You see, Mendoza is largely a desert in the rainshadow
of the Andes, the only way you can make things grow there is to bring water to
them, and 400 years ago the Jesuits figured out how to cheaply cover the
vineyards with meltwater from the mountains – a method still widely practiced
today – so Don Alberto had his work cut out for him. To prove that his method
was superior to flood irrigation, he bought a vineyard and installed his pipes
throughout, then another vineyard, then another… His son José, who was being groomed to take over selling irrigation
systems, started working for his dad by dealing with the grapes from the
vineyards his father kept acquiring, a job he slowly grew to love, finding much
more excitement and joy in viticulture than cement pipes could ever provide. He
bought the vineyards – not the pipes – from his dad and Zuccardi Winery was
born.
Don Alberto’s grandson Sebastien now joins José at the winery and has helped push Zuccardi off
the flat valley floor and into the hills of the Uco, favouring high-altitude
sites and moving away from the Californian influences that Catena introduced to
the region decades before. Indigenous ferments, concrete aging and
forward-thinking, carbon-neutral vineyard practices have made Zuccardi one of
the truly exciting wineries to watch in Mendoza, that excitement made golden
when International Wine Challenge named them Winery of the Year in 2019.
These are the Royal Families of Argentina’s vineyards,
Catena and Zuccardi, and I’m excited to offer a collection of their
wines:
CATENA ZAPATA
Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Chardonnay White Stones 2017
From – you guessed it – the rockiest
part of the Adrianna’s Chardonnay block with calcium-rich soils. Fully
arresting Chardonnay with citrus, stones (naturally), mint, flowers and spice.
An elegant medium body with laser focus and persistence, able to pack endless
energy into a sparse amount of molecules. 98 points James Suckling, 97
points Robert Parker, 96 points Vinous, 3 3-packs available, $118.98
Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Chardonnay White Bones 2017
Planted over layers of calcareous
deposits and limestone, this is the richer, more voluptuous of these Chards,
boasting bright ripe pear, apple and aromatic herbs. Perfectly balanced acidity
holding up the subtle rotundness. Not only tastes awesome, it tastes like you deserve
it to be awesome. 99 points James Suckling, 96 points Robert Parker, 96 points
Vinous, 3 3-packs available, $146.98 +tax
Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Malbec Fortuna Terrae 2016
Meaning “Luck of the Land”, this parcel of the Adrianna
vineyard is the most fertile, Eden-like block, with birds and bugs and wild
grasses keeping the vines company (Phylloxera hasn’t yet worked out how to take
hold in Mendoza, so all the vines are own-rooted and ungrafted). A round,
civilized expression of Malbec with dark blueberries, Indian spice and hidden
power, drinks like the Infinity Stones wrapped in your favourite blanket. 97
points Robert Parker, 96 points James Suckling, 2 3-packs available, $150.98
+tax
Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Malbec River Stones 2016
Extra points for guessing what’s in the dirt under this
parcel? Correct, a river once flowed through this part of Adrianna and the
soils are full of deposits of limestone and smooth rocks. This is Catena’s
lightning bolt, bottled earlier than usual after what they though was going to
be an off vintage – until they tried it. Still tightly coiled with high
acidity, this’ll need to unfold along its own timeline but it’s already
demanding attention – violets surround raspberries and blueberries over a taut,
chalky frame. Glorious. 100 points Robert Parker, 95 points James Suckling,
3 3-packs available, $188.98 +tax
Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Malbec Mundus Bacillus Terrae 2013
A lot of words for a lot of
wine. Only two thousand bottles were made from this tiniest of Adrianna
parcels, sitting over drained limestone that stresses the vines to produce a
minute quantity of dense, angry berries, building a backwards beast that smells
as much like a Piedmont wine as a Malbec: burnt orange, red currant and
tangerine can be found in the reserved nose, the cooler 2013 upped the acidity
to create a time traveller – we’re still 3-4 years out from pay dirt, here.
Huge body, balanced with zippedy zip. 97 points Robert Parker, 96 points
James Suckling, 4 bottles available, $368.98 +tax
EL ENEMIGO
El Enemigo Gran Enemigo 2014
A joint venture between Adrianna Catena (the person, not
the vineyard) and Alejandro Vigil, Catena’s chief winemaker, blending Cabernet
Franc with a splash of Malbec. You may know Cabernet Franc from BC, or Chinon
in the Loire valley – you have never had Cabernet Franc like this. Full
throated and statuesque from a single vineyard in Gualtallary, brimming with
blackberries, chalk and cinnamon over a bed of roses, a full frame and fuller
body towards a spicy finish. Like many great Francs this will cellar like a
boss. Unlike many lesser Francs it does not evoke a Greek Salad.
Freaking outstanding, makes you look at the grape and region differently. 98
points Robert Parker, 98 points James Suckling, 2 6-packs available, $102.98
+tax
ZUCCARDI
Zuccardi Alluvional Malbec 2016
From a chalky parcel in Gualtallary, aged only in concrete
and old barrels. I imagine a nice Gigondas that got bit by a radioactive
spider: fresh herbs and strawberry, plums and cherries over a bold, almost
twitchy frame, if this wine had fingers, Sith-like bolts of energy would come
out of them. Put a couple of diodes in this and charge your phone whilst
drinking. Tannins are actually quite silky and play a supporting role to the
fresh acidity from a gloriously cooler year. Fantastic stuff. 97 points
Robert Parker, 96 points Decanter, 2 6-packs available, $90.98 +tax
Piedra Infinita Malbec 2015
From a single parcel in Altamira in the Uco. Intense and
unadulterated, like you just ripped the lid off this terroir and immediately
bottled it. Violets upon violets with blue fruit and all manner of spices.
Pressed with 50% whole clusters and hardly any barrel, pronounced tannins and
an austere, chewy finish but still fresh and exciting. Herbs, garrigue circle
the finish also. Vineyard looks like the moon. Needs 5 years down at least, but
this will give your cellar a new centre of gravity. 98 points Robert Parker,
97 points Decanter, 97 points James Suckling.
Zuccardi Concreto Malbec 2017
I’ve written about Concreto on these pages before, and
re-include it here for new readers. Malbec aged only in concrete takes on a
decidedly Northern-Rhône-Syrah vibe, all herbaceous
and lifted with flowers, cassis and blackberry holding court. A great summer
red, stick it in the fridge 30 mins before drinking. 96 points James
Suckling, 94 points Robert Parker, #10, Wine Enthusiast Top 100 of 2018, 6
6-packs available, $46.98 +tax
Until next time, Happy Drinking!!
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