Nicasia Vineyard Malbec 2018

98 points, “It follows the path of the phenomenal 2017, fine and elegant.” – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The Nicasia Vineyard – one of the family’s highest – is located in the southerly growing region of Altamira in La Consulta. It’s the only plot planted with the special Catena Selection of Malbec cuttings (taken from old vines that no longer exist in Europe) in this area, and it was chosen because it was Nicolás Catena’s father Domingo’s favourite spot for Malbec. So, this is a deeply personal and completely unique wine from Bodega Catena Zapata.

The grapes for Nicasia Vineyard Malbec are filled into open-top barrels by hand, then they’re fermented using wild yeasts. The wine is then aged in French oak for 24 months, followed by a further two years in the bottle before release. As you can see, it’s a labour of love. But those efforts reap rewards, as the critic scores prove. Pull the cork to discover a complex and expressive Malbec with creamy notes of blueberry yoghurt, plus crème de cassis, raspberries, chocolate, violets, vanilla, fruitcake, smoke, wood and spiced meat. Boisterous but with an elegant mountain freshness, this is a vegan-friendly Malbec with a sense of adventure. Where will it take you?

Catena Zapata was named “The World’s Most Admired Wine Brand 2020” by Drinks International. Established in 1902, the bodega played a pioneering role in the explosion of Malbec and in exploring extreme high-altitude winemaking. Nicolás Catena Zapata, a former Decanter Man of the Year, is widely credited with putting Argentinean wine on the world map and should be placed on a level with the likes of Robert Mondavi in Napa and Angelo Gaja in Piedmont. “The most important winery in Argentina”, according to Wine Advocate, who also notes that: “the name Catena on the label is a guarantee of quality.” The winery is now run by Dr Laura Catena, the fourth-generation vintner and a graduate of both Harvard and Stanford Universities, who is fast becoming the face of Argentinian wine. When she’s not making wine or writing books, she is a part-time physician of Emergency Medicine in San Francisco – a suitably remarkable winemaker for an equally remarkable estate.