Vintage Argentina Wine Tasting featuring the most expensive wine from Argentina Nicolas Catena Estiba Reservada Parcel Historica

“The best wine comes from home, wherever it is.”
-Kirk Douglas, in the film "Spartacus"

I agree and my favorite wines are the ones that are made by good friends and wines that are familiar to me like those of Nicolas Catena.  If you are from Argentina you are most certainly familiar with this winery as it is the most important and one of the largest producers of wines in this country.

Nicolas Catena Zapata finished third in terms of overall score from 2004 through 2009 vintages according The Wine Advocate with only two wines in the entire world scoring higher than the Nicolas Catena Zapata and those were Penfolds Grange and Domaine de la Romanee conti Romanee Conti!  Quite a lofty accomplishment considering that all of the top ten were at least five times the cost of the Catena Zapata, the DRC wine sells for 15,000 per bottle for any vintage!!

Every year we showcase some of Argentina’s top wines that are nearing their peak years of drinkability and this year we have a wine that is 27 years old which is the oldest wine we have ever put on the table from Argentina.  I also found a bottle of the 2001 Cheval des Andes which is the first vintage of this joint venture between Terrazas de los Andes and Chateau Cheval Blanc one of the first wines of its kind, a Bordeaux/Argentina joint venture and this wine is now 21 years old. 

Join us as we experience some of the best wines that Argentina has to offer!  We only have 14 seats available for this event and the fee for the tasting which includes dinner is $250 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

Vintage Argentina Wine Tasting featuring the wines of Nicolas Catena
Saturday, July 30th
7:30 PM

2017 Catena Cabernet Sauvignon Classic Mendoza High Mountain Vines
2015 Catena Alta Cabernet Sauvignon Mendoza
2012 The Mega Malbec Company Artist Series Blend by Puro Uno Mendoza
2012 Cuvelier Los Andes El Cuvelier Mendoza
2013 Cuvelier Los Andes El Cuvelier Mendoza
2013 Alta Vista Alto Proprietary Blend Mendoza
2013 Nicolas Catena Zapata Red Blend Mendoza
2013 Catena Zapata Estiba Reservada Parcela Historica Agrello Mendoza
1995 Nicolas Catena Alta Cabernet Sauvignon Mendoza
2001 Cheval des Andes Mendoza

Menu
Cheese and Charcuterie Selection
Grilled Pepper with poached Quail Egg and Tuscan Olive Oil
Ricotta and Spinach Ravioli with Argentinian Tomato Sauce
Carne Asado: Churrasco, Chorizo, Grilled potatoes and peppers with Tomato Jalapeno Relish
Provoletta with grilled Bread and Chimichurri Sauce
Dolce De Leche Flan

This tasting is limited to 14 tasters and the fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $250 + tax for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewwatch.com

A bit about Nicolas Catena Winery:

When you arrive in Argentina you feel like you have arrived in the land of the giants- everything is big, very big. Every time you get into the car to go somewhere, everything is far away, hailstones are the size of softballs, go out to dinner and order a steak, this is where the creators of the Flinstones came up with their props. The wine business in Argentina is equally as large. It is the sixth largest wine producing nation on the face of the earth. They also do quite a bit of drinking, as the annual per capita consumption of wine is an impressive 90 liters per person. For a long time this enthusiastic consumers of wine had only a small portion of their annual production was exported. The uncertain economy and inflation of 5000 per cent a year kept Argentine wines at home. After a restructuring of the economy in the late 1980’s Argentine wine producers were finally able to set wine prices for export and invest in their future export markets. Since then we have seen a bevy of very good and very affordable wines from Argentina in the United States.

The Andes form the most significant influence on the Argentine vineyards. This barrier removes all moisture from the Pacific winds, thus creating bone-dry conditions and 320 days of sunshine every year, and also providing plentiful water for irrigation. You know every silver lining has a cloud attached to it and this perfect scenario is ruined by the fact that the high altitude thunderstorms that form over the Andes drop golf-ball size hail over the vineyards on a regular basis just before harvest. Mendoza is Argentina’s most important wine region, producing 90 percent of that countries exportable fine wine. It enjoys summer temperatures of up to 104 degrees, plenty of run-off from the mountains for irrigation, and grapes with ideal sugar levels to make fine wine.

One of the oldest and most established vineyards in Argentina is Catena. For over 100 years the Catena family has been making wine in the premier grape growing region of Mendoza, Argentina. Thier wines are exported to major markets around the world and have received universal acclaim from some of the most prominent wine critics. The Catena family roots, like those of the Mondavi and Gallo families, lie deep in the fertile Italian wine growing province of Marche, Italy. There, Nicola Catena was born. The son of vineyard workers, Nicola set out for the New World at the end of the last century, taking with him a love for the vines and a keen desire to grow grapes and make wine on land of his own.

Like other Italian immigrants to Argentina, Nicola settled in Mendoza, which at the time was just developing a reputation as a prime grape growing region. In 1902, he planted his first vineyard in the desert soil of Mendoza and began producing wine for the domestic market. His eldest son, Domingo, soon took responsibility for the family business. Thrifty, industrious and savvy marketeers, the Catenas steadily increased their vineyards and winemaking capacity to become one of Argentina's largest and most prosperous wine producing families.

In 1963, soon after graduating from the university with a degree in economics, Nicolás, named for his grandfather and eldest son of Domingo and Angelica Zapata, took over the family business. The young Nicolás further diversified and expanded the firm. By 1976, the Catenas were selling more than 20 million bottles of wine per month in the domestic market, making them not only Argentina's, but one of the world's largest producers of bottled wines. "By the 1970s, we had tremendous vineyard and winemaking resources at our command," notes Nicolás. Nicolás' younger brother Jorge, the newest family member to join the business, enrolled at the University of California at Davis. There he came in contact with other young, forward thinking winemakers and, under Nicolás' direction, began making plans to modernize the family's vineyard and winemaking technology.

As with most pioneers, Nicolás remembers one inspirational moment that launched his quest to bring perfection to the family's winemaking operations. Invited in 1982 to be a visiting professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of California at Berkeley, he embarked on frequent weekend outings with his wife, Elena, to the nearby Napa Valley wine growing region. There, he came to realize the full extent of California's leading winemakers' determination to produce wines that would rival the best of those from France. "One day we stopped to visit the Robert Mondavi Winery," recalls Nicolás. "I had not yet met Robert Mondavi, and we just took the normal tour. Until that moment, I had not really understood what the Californians were doing. But when I saw the Mondavi operation, their investment in research and could appreciate what they were achieving in terms of quality, I felt truly inspired. I thought, 'My God, why not try this in Mendoza.' I knew it would take time, but I also knew it could be done. I always think of that visit as the magic moment that changed my whole concept of quality winemaking."

By the late 1980s, the push to make world class wines at Bodegas Esmeralda, the winery dedicated to producing the highest quality wines among the wineries of the Catena Zapata family, had begun in earnest. As the results of new techniques and new plantings in the vineyards began to bear fruit, Nicolás and his management team turned to upgrading its winemaking technology. Today, Bodegas Esmeralda is equipped with state of the art machinery and hundreds of French and American oak barrels. But Nicolás' philosophy is, and always has been, that a great wine originates in the vineyard, and that the goal of the winemaker is to assure that every grape cluster is allowed to achieve its fullest potential. In 1991, he released his first vintage of both Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon into the US. market. The wines were unusual for both their quality and their retail price, which was well above that of other Latin American wines.

In 1998, Nicolás Catena's daughter Laura joined the family business as head of exports. A Harvard and Stanford graduate, Laura Catena is determined to put Argentine wines on the world map of top producers.

"Mendoza's terroir is extraordinary, " says Laura, "optimal soils, low humidity, scarce rains, and the ability to find different microclimates ideal for each varietal as one goes up and down the Andean foothills, make Mendoza a fabulous and one of a kind place for quality viticulture."