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The Henry Wine Group

Catena: A Revelatory Tasting BY PETER NEPTUNE, MS, AIWS, CWE, FWS Senior Vice President, Corporate Training & Wine Education for The Henry Wine Group

T his past fall I was fortunate enough to present several tastings featuring the single parcel wines of Catena. I was absolutely stunned by what I tasted. The precision and verve of the wines was revelatory, as was the purity of fruit and expression on individual terroirs. I will share my impressions of the wines shortly, but first a little background. The story begins with Nicola Catena, who sailed from Italy to Argentina in 1898, leaving behind a famine-stricken Europe. He planted his first Malbec vineyard in 1902, recognizing the potential of the varietal back then. The endeavor continued with his son Domingo taking the reins and adding to the vineyard holdings, making Catena one of the largest family owned wineries in Argentina. In the 1940s Argentines were drinking “Fine White” blends and “Fine Red” blends, or “Tinto Buenos Aires”. Not auspicious. In the 1960s Argentina’s economy crashed and the winery could barely afford to continue. The woes continued with a military government and severe inflation. By the early 1980s the reins had been turned over to Nicolás Catena Zapata, Domingo’s son. He had a vision for

the future, inspired by the success of Napa Valley and the Judgement of Paris. He sold his table wine producing company and kept only Bodegas Esmeralda, the fine wine side of the business. Everyone told him he was crazy. But Nicolás began exporting his wines and slowly helped develop the reputation for fine wine that Argentina has today. Indeed, Nicolás is credited as being the father of Argentina’s fine wine industry. In the early 1990s Nicolás set out to discover the absolute best sites to plant Malbec and other varietals. He became convinced that altitude was the key, and began exploring the area around Gualtallarry Alto – at 5,000 feet above sea level, the highest spot in Tupungato, Mendoza. It is there that he planted the Adrianna Vineyard, named after his youngest daughter. Nicolás’s daughter, Dr. Laura Catena created the Catena Institute of Wine in 2008, dedicated to the exploration of clones, soils and terroirs that Nicolas began. She created the idea of vinifying and bottling wines from individual parcels in the Adrianna Vineyard and the results are stunning.

January–April 2018

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