Catena Zapata Malbec Mundus Bacillus Terrae Adrianna Vineyard 2021 750ml

A complex yet super discreet nose with hints of wet stone, wet earth, peppercorn and graphite to the red and blue fruits. An elegant expression but this has an intense mid-palate with tight but silky tannins. Long, complex and soft-spoken. Nothing conspicuous here. Impeccable interplay between concentration and purity. Will age really well. Drinkable now but better from 2025.

The 2021 Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae comes from 1.4 hectares within the Adrianna vineyard in Gualtallary, planted in 1992 at 1,390 meters above sea level. It's from a cooler year in Mendoza with some frost that delivered low yields and wines of good concentration and ripeness. It has 13.9% alcohol and notable acidity (7.3 grams of tartaric acid per liter of wine). Seventy-five percent of the volume started fermenting in concrete with 50% full clusters and the rest without stems or skins, only juice, in oak foudres and aged in oak barrels for 15 to 18 months. This is very straight, elegant and balanced, following the path toward elegance that started in 2019. The wine closed down in the glass and slowly unfurled layers of complexity. It's textured, with very fine-grained tannins and great balance, a very subtle note of spices and a very elegant mouthfeel. This wine has been getting better and better in the last few years, getting closer to the more austere profile of the River bottling from Adrianna vineyard (which is still a little more austere than this in the great 2021 vintage). 5,400 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2022.

Rated 96 - Named after the bacteria that live in the soils of the Adrianna Vineyard – something of a specialist subject for Alejandro Vigil – this comes from a cool, high-altitude site and is the raciest of the Catena Malbec releases in 2021. Fermented with whole clusters before ageing in concrete, foudres and neutral oak, it’s sappy, focused and refined, with plum and bramble fruit, wafts of fennel and lavender and a chalky, mineral0etched finish. - Tim Atkin