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Catena Zapata Malbec Catena Alta Historic Rows 2020 750ml

size
750ml
country
Argentina
region
Cuyo
appellation
Mendoza
WA
93
VM
93
WS
93
Additional vintages
WA
93
Rated 93 by Wine Advocate
The perfumed and floral 2020 Catena Alta Malbec is serious and keeps the balance and poise in this warm and challenging year of the pandemic. It's ripe without excess at 13.8% alcohol and has mellow acidity, coming through as serious and balanced in the palate, with abundant, fine-grained tannins and a tasty and long finish. It's a serious Malbec that overdelivers for the conditions of the year. 165,600 bottles produced. ... More details
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Catena Zapata Malbec Catena Alta Historic Rows 2020 750ml

SKU 939509
Sale
$48.79
/750ml bottle
$43.91
/750ml bottle
Quantity
* This item is available for online ordering only. It can be picked up or shipped from our location within 4-6 business days. ?
Professional Ratings
WA
93
VM
93
WS
93
WA
93
Rated 93 by Wine Advocate
The perfumed and floral 2020 Catena Alta Malbec is serious and keeps the balance and poise in this warm and challenging year of the pandemic. It's ripe without excess at 13.8% alcohol and has mellow acidity, coming through as serious and balanced in the palate, with abundant, fine-grained tannins and a tasty and long finish. It's a serious Malbec that overdelivers for the conditions of the year. 165,600 bottles produced.
VM
93
Rated 93 by Vinous Media
The 2020 Malbec Catena Alta is a combination of grapes from specific historic lots in Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley and was aged for up to 18 months in new and used barrels. Purple in the glass. The complex nose presents notes of ripe plum with hints of spice, cedar and refined woody flavors along with a hint of jam. Indulgent and broad with a lean feel and expansive flow, the precise freshness and grippy tannins lend solidity to the palate.
WS
93
Rated 93 by Wine Spectator
Gorgeous and elegantly layered, with orange peel, hibiscus and hints of river mint as the entry to red currant and wild strawberry flavors, which are enlivened by a crunchy base of mineral acidity that allows the core flavors to spread out and linger around suave tannins. Drink now through 2032. 13,800 cases made, 5,500 cases imported.
Winery
Catena Alta Malbec shows a deep violet color, with blue reflections. The nose is elegant and complex with ripe red and black berry fruits, notes of violets and lavender and a touch of leather, spice and vanilla flavors. The palate is full and rich with soft and sweet tannins and a silky, smooth structure. Multiple layers of rich cassis, black currant and blackberries are interwoven with hints of licorice and black pepper. Its lengthy finish is marked by wonderful minerality, finely grained tannins and lively acidity.
Product Details
size
750ml
country
Argentina
region
Cuyo
appellation
Mendoza
Additional vintages
Overview
The perfumed and floral 2020 Catena Alta Malbec is serious and keeps the balance and poise in this warm and challenging year of the pandemic. It's ripe without excess at 13.8% alcohol and has mellow acidity, coming through as serious and balanced in the palate, with abundant, fine-grained tannins and a tasty and long finish. It's a serious Malbec that overdelivers for the conditions of the year. 165,600 bottles produced.
green grapes

Varietal: Malbec

In recent years, the Malbec single variety wines coming out of many New World countries have been gaining a lot of attention as a result of their fantastic plummy flavors, and strong, full-bodied nature. However, Malbec grape varietals have been cultivated for centuries in many Old World countries for these very characteristics, and they have long had a strong presence in some of the best blended wines ever produced by leading wineries. Their high tannin level and heavy juiciness means they are ideal for big, powerful full-bodied wines packing a strong fruit-forward punch on the palate, and their beautiful deep red color has long been admired and upheld as a mark of quality. The Malbec grapes are probably at their best when blended with other, mellower and more rounded grape varietals, such as a Merlot, as this allows their best features and their fruity flavor to shine, whilst being softened somewhat and made lighter and more drinkable.
barrel

Region: Cuyo

Argentina's Cuyo region has, for several decades now, been renowned worldwide for the high quality of its fruit-forward and remarkably flavorful wines. The arid region includes such famous provinces as the Mendoza, and wineries in Cuyo often have generations of experience when it comes to making the most of the mineral rich yet arid soils which typify the mountainous landscape. The Desaguadero River and its tributaries form many natural valleys through the Cuyo region, and as such, irrigation has long since provided the dry and dusty vineyard with a fertile and crystal-clear water source, straight from the snowy peaks of the nearby Andes. Although Malbec is the grape varietal most commonly associated with Cuyo, wineries continue to experiment with other varietals there, and the wine industry of Cuyo in Argentina continues to go from strength to strength.
fields

Country: Argentina

Anyone who has been the Mendoza area of Argentina may be surprised to find that this is one of the primary wine regions of the country, now comfortably sitting as the fifth largest producer of wine in the world. The Mendoza is an incredibly dry and arid desert, which receives as little as two hundred millimeters of rainfall per year, and supports very little life at all. We can thank the ancient technologies of the Huarpes Indians for Argentina's current booming wine trade, as they managed to irrigate the region by digging channels from the Mendoza river, thus creating an area which had enough access to water with which to grow vines. Not only this, but the grape which Argentina primarily uses for their wines – Malbec – actually flourishes in such conditions, as it is less likely to suffer from the rot it so often finds in the considerably damper regions of Europe it has its origins in. Such expertise and foresight has resulted in Argentina being able to produce high quality wines of both red and white types, with Malbec, Bonarda and Cabernet Sauvignon dominating the vineyards for red wines, and Torrontés, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc making up for most of the white wine produced there.
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Winery Catena Zapata
green grapes

Varietal: Malbec

In recent years, the Malbec single variety wines coming out of many New World countries have been gaining a lot of attention as a result of their fantastic plummy flavors, and strong, full-bodied nature. However, Malbec grape varietals have been cultivated for centuries in many Old World countries for these very characteristics, and they have long had a strong presence in some of the best blended wines ever produced by leading wineries. Their high tannin level and heavy juiciness means they are ideal for big, powerful full-bodied wines packing a strong fruit-forward punch on the palate, and their beautiful deep red color has long been admired and upheld as a mark of quality. The Malbec grapes are probably at their best when blended with other, mellower and more rounded grape varietals, such as a Merlot, as this allows their best features and their fruity flavor to shine, whilst being softened somewhat and made lighter and more drinkable.
barrel

Region: Cuyo

Argentina's Cuyo region has, for several decades now, been renowned worldwide for the high quality of its fruit-forward and remarkably flavorful wines. The arid region includes such famous provinces as the Mendoza, and wineries in Cuyo often have generations of experience when it comes to making the most of the mineral rich yet arid soils which typify the mountainous landscape. The Desaguadero River and its tributaries form many natural valleys through the Cuyo region, and as such, irrigation has long since provided the dry and dusty vineyard with a fertile and crystal-clear water source, straight from the snowy peaks of the nearby Andes. Although Malbec is the grape varietal most commonly associated with Cuyo, wineries continue to experiment with other varietals there, and the wine industry of Cuyo in Argentina continues to go from strength to strength.
fields

Country: Argentina

Anyone who has been the Mendoza area of Argentina may be surprised to find that this is one of the primary wine regions of the country, now comfortably sitting as the fifth largest producer of wine in the world. The Mendoza is an incredibly dry and arid desert, which receives as little as two hundred millimeters of rainfall per year, and supports very little life at all. We can thank the ancient technologies of the Huarpes Indians for Argentina's current booming wine trade, as they managed to irrigate the region by digging channels from the Mendoza river, thus creating an area which had enough access to water with which to grow vines. Not only this, but the grape which Argentina primarily uses for their wines – Malbec – actually flourishes in such conditions, as it is less likely to suffer from the rot it so often finds in the considerably damper regions of Europe it has its origins in. Such expertise and foresight has resulted in Argentina being able to produce high quality wines of both red and white types, with Malbec, Bonarda and Cabernet Sauvignon dominating the vineyards for red wines, and Torrontés, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc making up for most of the white wine produced there.