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Catena Zapata

Bones and Stones

Stunning Chardonnay and Malbec

from Argentina’s Grand Cru!

100 Points and Arriving This Week

2022 Catena Zapata Adrianna White Bones Chardonnay

100 JS / 96 TA / 19 JR

$124.89 (750ml) - Buy Now

2021 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard

River (Stones) Malbec

100 WA / 98 VM / 98 JS / 97 TA / 18.5+ JR

$199.89 (750ml) - Buy Now

If you have ever been to Mendoza, you can’t forget the stunning vista of the Andes Mountains rising over the vineyards. It is a special place, unlike any other wine region I have ever been. It’s much bigger than I expected, warm and dry during the day, and crisp and cool at night. With vineyards rising from around 1,400 feet above sea level to nearly 6,500 ft ASL. It is at this super high elevation that some of the greatest wines not just of South America, but of the world, are made.

Adrianna Vineyard Vinos de Parcela – South America’s Grand Cru. Laura Catena says that finding a site like Adrianna or La Tache or Lafite is like finding gold. It’s a combination of research, historic knowledge and luck. When Nicolás Catena Zapata found the Adrianna site, it was because he was looking for the coolest climate in Mendoza, for the limit of vine cultivation.

He was looking to make balanced, elegant and age-worthy wines. He was told that he was crazy, that grapes would never ripen there, but they did, and they did beautifully. When the vineyard was first planted in 1992, Nicolás had some doubts: during the early plantings, there was a severe winter storm that buried the whole area. There was so much snow that nobody could drive through the roads.

But the magic at Adrianna goes beyond the cool climate. Adrianna Vineyard is at the site of a dried river bed, the stony, limestone soils are well drained and the extreme high altitude (5,000 feet elevation) provides the ideal amount of sunlight and cold. Nicolás Catena thinks that finding the Adrianna Vineyard was more luck than anything else.

These stunning bottles of White Bones and River (they dropped the Stones part of the name) arrive this week!

2022 Catena Zapata Adrianna White Bones Chardonnay

$124.89 (750ml) - Buy Now

100 JS / 96 TA / 19 JR

This is always aromatic, exotic and idiosyncratic, with its enchanting aromas of green fruit, green curry, citrus, ash, green passion fruit and spearmint. Almost full-bodied on the palate with lots of mineral tension. Bright acidity quickly takes over, followed by a long, bone-dry finish that goes on and on. So pure, unique and thought-provoking. Drink or hold.

If there’s one Chardonnay that you could easily spot blind in a line-up, it is Catena Zapata’s White Bones. There is an unmistakable note of lemon and lavender on the nose, which is quite unlike any other. In the palate, there is a delicious chalkiness and elegant, fine finish with vibrant acidity and slight tang from partial biological ageing. This vintage shows wonderful concentration yet poise. Stellar stuff.-Amanda Barnes, JancisRobinson

2021 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard River (Stones) Malbec

$199.89 (750ml) - Buy Now

100 WA / 98 VM / 98 JS / 97 TA / 18.5+ JR

There is an usual stony austerity in the 2021 Adrianna Vineyard River, cropped from a cold year when the full clusters fermented in concrete with a slightly shorter maceration and an élevage in a 2,000-liter oak foudre and the rest in stainless steel. It has a moderate 13.4% alcohol with very high acidity (8.2!) and a low pH (3.37), incredible parameters of freshness. The wine was closed and took time to take off in the glass, revealing a very elegant and subtle personality, with the silky texture of the very fine tannins, pristine aromas and flavors and a sense of harmony that was moving. It's powerful but extremely elegant in that rare combination of clout and energy, a wine of light, aerial, with some ethereal qualities, delicate and refined. This combines the cool place and high altitude, the cool year and the stony soils, to deliver a stunning Malbec that goes well beyond the variety. Bravo! 3,400 bottles produced.-Luiz Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate

The wine offers one of the most fragrant and floral Malbecs of the Adrianna range, which is drinking beautifully already with alluring notes of violets and wild flowers. There are fine, powdery tannins and vibrant acidity. Very elegant indeed.-Amanda Barnes, JancisRobinson

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