Catena Zapata Red Blend Nicolas Catena Zapata 2020 750ml

Cassis, tobacco, wet stones, iron and baking spices to the nose, showing class, restraint and complexity. Medium- to full-bodied on the palate with super fine tannins. Dry, super elegant and silky with a lengthy, polished finish. Really Bordeaux-like. Juicy and long. 54% cabernet sauvignon from Gualtallary, 25% cabernet franc from Altamira and 21% malbec from both areas. The highest portion of cabernet franc this year helped retain its nervy freshness! This is classy and beautiful. Harvested on March 12th and 13th. Drink or hold.

The 2020 Nicolás Catena Zapata is a blend composed of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Malbec and 20% Cabernet Franc sourced from Paraje Altamira in the Uco Valley. It was carefully aged for up to 16 months in French oak barrels. Garnet in hue. The nose reveals captivating cassis, rose, blackberry, plum and fig aromas harmoniously combined with dried flowers. The palate presents a dry and ample profile, with fine-grained tannins and a juicy flow that leads to a vibrant mouthfeel, brimming with energy. This meticulously crafted red achieves precise balance in a warm vintage.

Floral, perfumed, and beautifully balanced, this offers layers of red fruits with precise French oak spice. The palate is voluminous and tense, before the chalky freshness, fine-grained tannins, and mineral backbone come into play. A wine intended for bottle ageing. Made from massal selections of ungrafted, pre-phylloxera Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec; with 25% Cabernet Franc. A nod to 18th-century Bordeaux, when Malbec was widely planted in the Médoc.

A blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 21% Malbec, the 2020 Nicolas Catena Zapata is deep garnet-purple in color. It rolls out with vibrant notes of redcurrant jelly, cassis, and baked plums, leading to hints of crushed rocks, wild sage, and fragrant soil. The medium-bodied palate is refreshing, finely crafted, and elegantly styled, with vibrant black fruit and savory layers and a fine-grained texture, finishing with a real skip in its step.

2020 was a very dry and low-yielding year, with 20% to 30% less crop, and the grapes were picked early. The 2020 Nicolás Catena Zapata was produced with a blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc and 21% Malbec, higher in Franc than ever, for the first time more than Malbec, to compensate the warm and dry conditions. The wine is ripe and very peppery, with 13.9% alcohol and a pH of 3.64. It matured in new and second-use French oak barrels for 18 months. It was a healthy crop with concentration and ripeness, and the wine comes through as powerful and quite classical, still a little oaky, with power and balance. 60,000 bottles were filled in January 2020.

Nicolás Catena Zapata has an intense, deep purple color with bluish-black tones. On the nose, aromas of black fruits – blackberries, black cherries, black plums – predominate with subtle notes of vanilla and dark chocolate intermingled with savory hints of green olive and a stony minerality. On the palate, the wine is tremendously complex, unfolding layer upon layer of red currant, eucalyptus, and black pepper flavors. Black cherries and blackberries give way to cassis followed by a hint of saline minerality. The wine is remarkably concentrated with a firm tannic structure providing the backbone for the lush fruit. The finish is long, a foretoken of the long aging potential of this Argentine masterpiece.