Catena Zapata Argentina Wine Tasting with Special Guest Winemaker Ernesto Bajda

 

“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. 

 

We have been good friends with the company that brings these wines into this country for years and have hosted an annual tasting featuring the wines of Nicolas Catena for over two  decades now at Wine Watch.

 

If you have been following me for even a short length of time you have heard me say- “you just can't get a better value when considering Bordeaux varietals than what is coming from Chile and Argentina today”. Tonight we will be featuring a range of wines from Bodegas Nicolas Catena, one of the most important wineries not only in Argentina but in the world and we have the winemaker for these wines here on Friday September 25th. 

 

Join us as we welcome Ernesto “Nesti” Bajda to South Florida for a night of Argentina’s finest wines from Bodegas Nicolas Catena.  The fee for this tasting which includes dinner and gratuity is $295 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catena Zapata Wine Tasting

with Special Guest Winemaker Ernesto Bajda

Friday, September 25, 2026

7:30 PM

 

2025 Catena Appellation White Clay

2024 Catena Alta Chardonnay

2023 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Chardonnay White Stones

2024 Catena Appellation Cabernet Franc San Carlos

2022 Catena Alta Cabernet Sauvignon

2021 Nicolas Catena Zapata, Nicolas Catena Proprietary Red Blend

2023 Catena Alta Malbec

2023 Nicolas Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino

2022 Nicolas Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Malbec River

 

Menu

Selection of Cheese and Charcuterie

Crab Cake Pearl Morisette

Beef Short Rib Empanada with Mole Sauce

Lamb Osso Buco with Malbec Risotto and Carrot Puree

Alfajores

 

The fee for this tasting which includes dinner and gratuity is $295 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any food allergies or aversions and chef Toni and Dani will be happy to accommodate you.

 

A bit about our host:

 

Ernesto (Nesti) Bajda started working in the Catena family’s vineyards in 2002. In 2005 he joined the research team to work on microvinifications to determine the best places in the family’s high-altitude vineyards. Now with more than a dozen vintages behind him, Nesti not only has expertise in research and vineyard management, but he also has a unique knowledge of the precision tools to identify variability in vineyards, which is what he believes are the key to achieving outstanding wines.

 

A graduate of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza, Nesti earned his degree in Agricultural Engineering, with specializations in Viticulture and Oenology. Nesti regularly performs opera in a male octet. His favorite piece to perform is Una Furtiva Lagrima from Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore.”

 

“In my family, you always know that if someone starts to sing, something extraordinary has happened—it’s an involuntary reaction. So when I taste our wine and my first reaction is to sing, then I know we’ve created a masterpiece.”

Ernesto “Nesti” Bajda

 

 

All the wines from Bodegas Nicolas Catena in the store on SALE!!

 

 

2021 Catena Zapata Nicolas Red Blend Mendoza

Price: $132.00                           Your Price: $118.80

(96 Points) Vinous Media For some producers, the 2021 vintage, marked by certain rains in February that tempered the harvest temperatures in March, represents the closest thing to a Bordeaux year that can be achieved in Mendoza. In that sense, the 2021 was an ideal vintage for Bordeaux-origin varieties. This unique situation is clearly reflected in the 2021 Nicolás Catena Zapata, which unveils a new label for this vintage after being aged up to 21 months in French oak barrels. The wine blends 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 44% Malbec and 10% Cabernet Franc from Uco Valley vineyards. With a deep purple hue and a garnet tint, it opens with delicate cassis and Bordeaux-like nuances of ash, tobacco, black fruit and cherry. Expressive and compact, it features cedar notes on a long, lingering finish. (JH)

 

2020 Catena Zapata Nicolas Catena Mendoza Magnum

Price: $250.00                           Your Price: $225.00

(95 Points) 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.  Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

                                                                                            

2019 Nicolas Catena Zapata Red Blend Mendoza Magnum (1.5L)

Price: $250.25                                                                                    Your Price: $225.23

(96 Points) The 2019 Nicolás Catena Zapata was produced with 42% Cabernet Sauvignon from Gualtallary (Adrianna Vineyard), 30% Malbec from Altamira (Nicasia Vineyard) and a high percentage of Cabernet Franc (28%), also from Adrianna, which took the place of Cabernet Sauvignon. It fermented in small oak barrels, concrete and stainless steel tanks with a short post-fermentative maceration. Élevage was in first and second-use French oak barrels and lasted for 18 months, including malolactic.his is always quite classical in style, with some spiciness from the barrels and hints of smoke and toast, still very young and undeveloped. It has the traditional Bordeaux-blend character and is herbal, floral and spicy, with a beautiful texture, very nice balance and very fine, chalky tannins. 2019 was a very dry year, and the berries were small, very healthy and delivered powerful wines. Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

2004 Catena Zapata Nicolas Catena Mendoza 6 Liter

Price: $1900.00                        Your Price: $1710.00                       Quantity in Stock: 1

(98 Points) Catena Zapata’s flagship is the Nicolas Catena Zapata, a Cabernet Sauvignon-Malbec blend. The 2004 Nicolas Catena Zapata is composed of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Malbec. It spent 18 months in 100% new French oak. A saturated black purple in color, it has an aristocratic perfume of pain grille, mineral, espresso, saddle leather, cassis, black currant, and black raspberry. Opulently textured, complex, ripe, and sweet on the palate, it maintains a sense of elegance as well as power. It demands 10-15 years of further cellaring and should still be providing pleasure at age 50. It strikes me as being Argentina’s equivalent of a great vintage of Lafite-Rothschild.  Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

 

2022 Catena Alta Adrianna Vineyard River Malbec Mendoza

Price: $230.00                           Your Price: $207.00

(98 Points) Wine Advocate The 2022 Adrianna Vineyard Malbec River squarely occupies the most ethereal, lifted and weightless expression of Malbec in the Catena Zapata roster. It opens with a floral, lively and open-knit bouquet that hints at the stony, mineral-tinged tension to follow on the palate. In the mouth, it displays a taut, spry and gently succulent texture that is deceptively rich and powerful despite its nimble nature, releasing into a persistent, long and unwaveringly focused finish. This is a perfect counterpoint to the more robust Malbec Mundus Bacillus Terrae bottling and will appeal to readers seeking nuance and minerality above all else.

 

2015 Catena Alta Adrianna Vineyard River Malbec Mendoza Magnum (1.5L)

Price: $550.25                           Your Price: $495.23

(95 Points) Wine Advocate The 2015 Adrianna Vineyard River Stones is from the stonier part of Adrianna Vineyard in Gualtallary, from vines right next to the river bed at 1,349 meters in altitude, a part that tends to produce more austere wines. There is higher ripeness compared with 2014 and 2016. Even though it might show a little more exuberant in comparison, the palate reveals an austere wine that has a large personality but is superbly balanced, with very fine-grained tannins and very good balance. But sometimes comparisons can be tedious, and there are wines that suffer. This is one of them, but it is still superb.

 

 

2022 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard 'Mundus Bacillus Terrae' Malbec Uco Valley Mendoza Argentina

Price: $375.00                           Your Price: $337.50

(99 Points) Wine Advocate Among the exceptional trio of Malbec bottlings from Adrianna Vineyard, I found the 2022 Adrianna Vineyard Malbec Mundus Bacillus Terrae to be the most complete and captivating. Starting with a dramatic, exotic, multidimensional and sophisticated nose, it presents an array of paradoxes that characterize the world's most intriguing wines: depth coupled with lift and elegance matched with assertion, all underpinned by a quiet, understated intensity that flows from the nose to the finish. A sleek, rich and polished palate transitions into a grippy, ultra-refined finish featuring well-measured tannins and remarkable length. I eagerly anticipate how this wine will evolve, and I have no doubt its trajectory will span at least two decades.

 

2018 Nicolas Catena Zapata Adrianna Mundus Bacillus Terrae Malbec Mendoza

Price: $352.00                           Your Price: $316.80                         Quantity in Stock: 1

The Catena Family is entering its second century of winemaking in Mendoza, Argentina. Named after Nicolás Catena Zapata’s youngest daughter, the Adrianna Vineyard is located at almost 5,000 feet elevation in Mendoza. The soils in this 1.4 hectare parcel are filled with scattered limestone and marine deposits that covered the region millions of years ago. The limestone layers are well-drained and particularly rich in rhizobacteria, the microorganisms that help vine roots withstand stress and absorb nutrients. Thus, the name "mundus bacillus terrae" or "elegant microbes of the earth".

 

 

2021 Nicolas Catena Zapata Adrianna Fortuna Terrae Malbec Mendoza Magnum (1.5L)

Price: $285.00                           Your Price: $256.50

(97 points) Wine Advocate The 2021 Adrianna Vineyard Malbec Fortuna Terrae opens with a quintessential profile of black fruits, dried herbs and purple flowers, all delivered with the ethereal lift common to this section of Gualtallary. The palate is deep, concentrated and savory, seamlessly transitioning into an immensely rich, long, focused and increasingly vibrant and mineral-driven finish. This vintage is particularly dynamic in the glass, continuously gaining power, depth and tensile structure; I do not doubt it will develop beautifully in the cellar with its other Adrianna Vineyard counterparts.

 

2019 Nicolas Catena Zapata Adrianna Fortuna Terrae Malbec Mendoza Magnum (1.5L)

Price: $320.00                           Your Price: $288.00

(97 Points) The 2019 Adrianna Vineyard Fortuna Terrae has herbal and spicy aromas intermixed with flowers coming through as harmonious and very integrated. It comes from a part of the vineyard with slightly deeper soils with limestone at 70 centimeters. This plot provides very aromatic, lighter wines, floral, with fine tannins with chalky minerality and good grip. It fermented with 100% full clusters and matured in oak foudre for 18 months. Best after 2023.  Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

2015 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard 'Fortuna Terrae' Malbec (MAGNUM)

Price: $360.00                           Your Price: $324.00

(95 Points) Like many other 2015s, there is a little more ripeness in the 2015 Adrianna Vineyard Fortuna Terrae, and the year is more marked and more noticeable in this bottling. It's juicy, floral, expressive and more gentle within the serious and austere profile the place provides.  Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

2022 Catena Zapata D.V. Catena Malbec Nicasia Vineyard San Carlos

Price: $127.25                           Your Price: $114.53

(97 Points) Vinous - The 2022 Malbec Nicasia Vineyard was sourced from Paraje Altamira and aged for up to 21 months in oak barrels. Aromas of violets and lavender blend with cassis and intense blue fruit notes. Delicate yet juicy with a plush texture, it shows fine oak integration. It's precise in its fruit expression, finishing long with refined structure and a polished impression. The fresh, dry 2022 vintage lends additional nuance to this delicious wine. Compared to Catena Zapata’s single-vineyard wines, Nicasia typically receives less attention, but this is a distinctive, captivating Malbec in and of itself.

 

 

2023 Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino Mendoza

Price: $128.00                           Your Price: $115.20

(94 Points) A decidedly riper and more forward style than many of Catena Zapata's offerings, the 2023 Malbec Argentino combines ungrafted massal selections from two polar-opposite vineyard sources: the Angélica Vineyard in Maipú's Lunlunta district and Paraje Altamira's Nicasia Vineyard. It was vinified entirely in foudre with 20% whole clusters and aged for 12 months. The nose is deep and dark-fruited, welcomely lifted by a lovely floral component that builds with oxygen exposure. On the palate, it is velvety and rich yet impressively buoyant, transitioning to an explosive, ripe and powerful finish dominated by luscious fruits.  Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

2022 Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino Mendoza, Argentina Magnum

Price: $270.00                           Your Price: $243.00

(93 Points) A blend of two origins-the warmer La Consulta and the cooler Paraje Altamira -the 2022 Malbec Argentino Purplish in hue, it reveals aromas of violets, plum and ripe dark fruit, alongside subtle smoky nuances. The oak is finely integrated, lending a creamy texture, plush tannins and a soft structure.  Vinous

 

2023 Catena Alta Malbec Mendoza

Price: $61.00                             Your Price: $54.90

During the 1990’s, Bodega Catena Zapata set new standards for Argentine wine. In an effort to produce a super premium wine, the winemaking team of Catena began in-depth investigations into the yields from specially selected, high altitude vineyards, identifying the individual lots that produce the best fruit. These vines undergo a careful thinning process, leaving only a select few clusters, resulting in remarkably complex, aromatic and flavorful fruit. Through the application of natural techniques, these grapes are transformed into Catena Alta. This wine is unfined and unfiltered.

 

 

2024 Catena Malbec Classic Mendoza

Price: $23.25                             Your Price: $20.93

Winemaker notes: Catena Malbec presents a deep violet color with purple reflections. This microclimate blend of four unique vineyards offers intense aromas, soft texture, and concentrated flavor. Deep aromas of ripe red and dark fruits are joined by delicate violet and lavender notes, with traces of vanilla and mocha. A rich, concentrated mouthfeel is highlighted by flavors of blueberries and blackberries with a touch of leather and cinnamon. The wine has well-integrated tannins, bright acidity, and a flinty minerality that provides exceptional length to the finish. Pair with roast turkey, grilled steak, salmon, and pasta with red sauce.

 

2024 Catena Malbec Appellation La Consulta Mendoza
Price: $28.25                             Your Price: $25.43

Catena Appellation La Consulta is a classic cool climate Malbec with a deep purple color, black fruit aromatics, and rich velvety tannins.

 

2024 Catena Malbec Paraje Altamira Uco Valley
Price: $28.25                             Your Price: $25.43

(92 Points) Vinous Media - The 2024 Malbec Appellation Paraje Altamira, from Uco Valley, delivers intense red fruit, with sour cherry, fresh plum and a hint of herbs. This is smooth and slightly plush, with soft chalk and a juicy, clean finish.

 

2024 CATENA MALBEC APPELLATION LUNLUNTA MENDOZA
Price: $28.25                             Your Price: $25.43

(93 Points) Vinous Media -The 2024 Malbec Appellation Lunlunta comes from Luján de Cuyo and was aged 11–13 months in French oak barrels (25–40% new, plus second- and third-use wood). Highly expressive, it opens with clear violet notes and fresh plum, framed by refined oak. It is dry, juicy and supple, with fine, flexible tannins and an enveloping flow. A classic Luján de Cuyo Malbec. (JH)

 

2021 Catena Zapata Tribute to Gustav Klimt Malbec Gualtallary Mednoza

Price: $27.00                             Your Price: $24.30

 

2023 Nicolas Catena 'La Marchigiana' Malbec Mendoza

Price: $22.50                             Your Price: $20.25

 

2023 NICOLAS CATENA "LA MARCHIGIANA"CRIOLLA CHICA MENDOZA

Price: $35.00                             Your Price: $31.50

Winemaker notes: La Marchigiana honors the natural and sulfite-free homemade wine legacy with this very limited production. In 1898, Nicola Catena arrived in Argentina from Le Marche, Italy, bringing with him the family tradition of creating natural wines, preserved only by their own tannins. It is a "naked wine," in which only the grapes and terroir speak.

 

2022 CATENA ALTA CABERNET SAUVIGNON MENDOZA

Price: $57.00                             Your Price: $51.30

(91 Points) Vinous Media The 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon blends multiple terroirs from the Uco Valley, with its focal point in Los Arboles. It displays a purple hue with a garnet sheen. Its nose reveals mint, ashes, currant and menthol. The dry and plush palate leaves a lingering, juicy impression with a slightly taut mouthfeel. This continental Cabernet is brimming with flavor and boasts polished tannins.

 

2024 Catena Cabernet Sauvignon Classic Mendoza

Price: $24.00                             Your Price: $21.60

Powerful aromas of ripe raspberries and cassis with notes of pepper, clove, and a touch of cedar. Full-bodied with silky tannins that give structure and a long finish.

 

2022 Catena Appellation Agrelo Cabernet Sauvignon Mandoza

Price: $19.25                             Your Price: $17.33

 

2022 Catena Appellation San Carlos Cabernet Franc Mendoza

Price: $28.25                             Your Price: $25.43

(93 points) The 2022 Cabernet Franc Appellation San Carlos originates from a massal vineyard planted in the southern Uco Valley. Fermented with 30% whole clusters and aged for up to 13 months in French oak barrels (with approximately one-third of them being new), this garnet wine with a purplish sheen offers aromas of ash, roasted red pepper and cassis, with a subtle leafy undertone. Creamy and juicy, the taut and fine-grained palate lingers with intense flavor. This is a savory Cabernet Franc from San Carlos. -Vinous.

 

 

 

2023 CATENA DV CATENA TINTO HISTORIC RED MENDOZA

Price: $24.00                             Your Price: $21.60

(92 Points) Vinous Media - The 2023 Tinto Histórico DV Catena blends 79% Malbec, 15% Bonarda and 6% Petit Verdot from four vineyards across Uco Valley and Primera Zona. Aged for up to 13 months in barrel, its appealing aromatic profile offers orange petit four, white pepper and balsamic notes over black fruit and oak. Slightly indulgent with volume and grip, the palate derives plushness from its aging and subtly active tannins from the vintage. (JH)

 

 

2015 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard White Bones Mendoza

Price: $160.00             Your Price: $144.00

For over four generations, the Catena family has grown vines in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Mendoza, Argentina. In his pursuit to make wines that stand with the best in the world, Nicolás Catena identified the best lots and rows, in the Catena family’s estate vineyards.

The Adrianna vineyard is located at almost 5,000’ elevation in the Gualtallary sub-district of the Tupungato region. White Bones Chardonnay comes from select rows within Block 1 of the Adrianna Vineyard. The name refers to the soil underneath these rows, which is layered with calcareous deposits and limestone as well as fossilized animal bones – remnants of a river that used to pass through the region.

There are many theories about why the grapes coming from these rows have such distinctive floral aromatics with an earthy minerality in the nose and palate. It may be related to the minerals in the soil or to the effects that the calcareous deposits have on root penetration.

At this extreme high altitude, the nights are cool, only a few degrees above freezing even in the summer. The night-day temperature difference is between 15 and 20 degrees. And the sunlight is more intense because of the altitude.

 

2023 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard White Stones Chardonnay Mendoza

Price: $147.00                           Your Price: $132.30                         Quantity in Stock: 2

(97 Points) The 2023 Adrianna Vineyard Chardonnay White Bones leads with its quintessentially lifted, vibrant bouquet of citrus rinds, dried spices, white flowers and fresh herbs, continuously developing additional complexity from its biological aging under flor. The palate combines live-wire focus with ethereal richness and a gently creamy core that runs through its mouthwatering and mineral-drenched finish. A fantastic iteration of the exotic, precise profile readers have come to expect from this pioneering Gualtallary Chardonnay reference point. Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

2015 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard White Stones Chardonnay Mendoza

Price: $160.25                           Your Price: $144.23

(95 Points) A dense and layered white with sliced cooked apples, mangoes and hints of dried lemons. Exotic undertones, too. Full-bodied, tight and focused with minerality and precision. Drink or hold.  James Suckling

 

2014 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard White Stones Chardonnay Mendoza

Price: $170.00                           Your Price: $153.00                         Quantity in Stock: 1

they made these wines since the 2006 vintage but they were not released until the 2009 when they were confident that they had this right these. This wine has a bit of a gravelly mineral note to the green apple and lemon zest on the nose with a touch of lightly toasted oak spice, still a bit tightly wound. Bright and zesty on the tongue this wine needs a bit of time but has wonderful balanced and is a dead ringer for a white burgundy. Most Excellent

 

2024 Catena Alta Chardonnay Mendoza

Price: $39.00                             Your Price: $35.10

Aromas of ripe peaches and pears are interwoven with delicate citrus and jasmine notes. The palate shows rich and concentrated ripe pear, apple, and apricot flavors. The wine finishes long and complex with crisp, mineral acidity.

 

 

2023 Catena Chardonnay Classic Mendoza

Price: $24.00                             Your Price: $21.60

(93 points) Fresh and creamy notes of pie crust, lemon curd and toast. Bright, juicy and elegant on the palate with a fluid, lengthy finish. A very good value here. -James Suckling.

 

 

2025 CATENA SEMILLON CHENIN WHITE CLAY

Price: $26.00                             Your Price: $23.40

Catena Appellation Luján de Cuyo White Clay is deeply aromatic with expressive citrus and peach with a rich and mineral finish. This blend of Semillón and Chenin Blanc is Argentina’s century-old traditional white wine. Blend: 55% Semillón, 45% Chenin Blanc

 

 

2024 Catena Rose De La Provincia De Mendoza

Price: $15.75               Your Price: $14.18

The delicate profile offers tart red cherry and floral aromas with creaminess and saline minerality on the palate. It is unapologetically Argentine in style.

 

 

A bit about 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."