Do we ship to you?.
Also Recommended
Picture
Product Name
Vintage
Price
Varietal
Country
Region
Appellation
Size
Additional Discount
Original Item
2012
$104.12
Chardonnay
Argentina
Cuyo
Mendoza
750ml
N/A
Better Score, Similar Price
2020
$104.12
Chardonnay
Argentina
Cuyo
Mendoza
750ml
Closest Match
2014
$104.12
Chardonnay
Argentina
Cuyo
Mendoza
750ml
Best QPR in Price range
2019
$96.78
Chardonnay
Argentina
Cuyo
Mendoza
750ml
More wines available from Catena Zapata
750ml
Bottle:
$17.90
Blue fruit and floral lift on the nose. Juniper and blueberry tart, with a floral, peppery, and delightfully smooth,...
750ml
Bottle:
$16.76
The Catena Cabernet Sauvignon shows a dark ruby color with violet tones. On the nose, it offers intense aromas of...
750ml
Bottle:
$17.27
$19.19
Similar to the Malbec, the 2021 Catena Cabernet Sauvignon was also produced in an approachable and commercial style,...
750ml - 1 Bottle
Bottle:
$42.78
A majority Cabernet Sauvignon with 7% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot from Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley that...
750ml
Bottle:
$44.05
$47.99
The Catena Cabernet Sauvignon shows a dark ruby color with violet tones. On the nose, it offers intense aromas of...
More Details
Winery
Catena Zapata
Vintage: 2012
2012 has, so far been a positive year for wineries around the world. While it may be a little too early to speak of the wines being made in the northern hemisphere, European and North American wineries have already begun reporting that their harvesting season has been generally very good, and are predicting to continue with the kind of successes they saw in 2011. However, 2012 has been something of a late year for France, due to unpredictable weather throughout the summer, and the grapes were ripening considerably later than they did in 2011 (which was, admittedly, an exceptionally early year). French wineries are claiming, though, that this could well turn out to be advantageous, as the slow ripening will allow the resulting wines to express more flavour and features of the terroir they are grown in.
The southern hemisphere has seen ideal climatic conditions in most of the key wine producing countries, and Australia and New Zealand particularly had a superb year, in particular with the Bordeaux varietal grapes that grow there and which love the humidity these countries received plenty of. Also enjoying a fantastic year for weather were wineries across Argentina and Chile, with the Mendoza region claiming that 2012 will be one of their best vintages of the past decade. Similar claims are being made across the Chilean wine regions, where Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon had an especially good year. These two grape varietals also produced characterful wines on the coastal regions of South Africa this year.
Varietal: Chardonnay
There are few white wine grape varietals as famous or widely appreciated as the Chardonnay, and with good reason. This highly flexible and adaptable grape quickly became a favorite of wineries due to its fairly neutral character. This neutrality allows the wineries to really show off what they are capable of doing, by allowing features of their terroir or aging process to come forward in the bottle. As well as this, most high quality wineries which produce Chardonnay wines take great efforts to induce what is known as malolactic fermentation, which is the conversion of tart malic acids in the grapes to creamy, buttery lactic acids associated with fine Chardonnay. Whilst the popularity of Chardonnay wines has fluctuated quite a considerable amount over the past few decades, it seems the grape varietal allows enough experimentation and versatility for it always to make a successful comeback.
Region: Cuyo
The region of Cuyo has been internationally associated with fine Argentinian wine for several decades, and has a wine history which stretches back centuries to the time of the original Spanish settlers, who sought areas in which to plant imported grape vines for sacramental wine production. The region contains several of Argentina's most renowned and widely appreciated provinces, including the Mendoza, La Rioja, San Juan and San Luis, and the mountainous nature of this arid region provides an ideal environment for vineyard cultivation. As the mighty Desaguadero River snakes its way between the Andes, it deposits plenty of important minerals in the soil, which allow grape varietals closely associated with the Argentinian wine industry – such as Malbec – to grow to a perfect level of ripeness. As such, even in the driest areas of the Cuyo region, flavorful and fruit-forward wines are produced in impressive amounts.
Country: Argentina
In the dry, arid deserts of Argentina, wineries and winemakers are focusing their efforts on producing high quality wines for the world market. By experimenting with both traditional and modern methods and technologies, they have found great success with a wide variety of grapes well suited to the conditions of the country, particularly Malbec, Bonarda and Cabernet Sauvignon. Over the past decade, Argentinian wineries have continued to aim high, and this has led to a range of new wines using grape varietals not typically associated with the country. The cooler regions of Argentina are seeing more vineyards being planted with Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir varietals, something that is beginning to produce fantastic results, which are at once representative of the country's wines - with all their fruity and bold character - but are also pushing the boundaries of what we expect from a New World country.