Catena Zapata, Adrianna Malbec, Mendoza 2010

The awesome 2010 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard turned out to be one of my favorite wines of all that I tasted from Argentina, a wine that has me daydreaming of Gualtallary and the amazing Adrianna vineyard which is also the source of the superb White Bones and White Stones Chardonnays. Here the Malbec, grown at 1,480 meters above sea level in the Tupungato quarter of the Uco Valley, in the commune of Gualtallary where the soils are rich in calcium carbonate, is co-fermented with a little (7%) Viognier from that very same vineyard. It produces a sappy, tasty, umami-driven wine that has very high acidity (almost citric), 6.5 grams of it – so you might not like this wine if you prefer low acidity ones. It is austere and straight, but it packs quite a punch. The nose is somehow reticent, but it slowly displays floral notes and aromas of ripe fruit, some spices and aromatic herbs. The palate is also austere and straight, a very mineral wine, with a texture and an electricity akin to licking a chalky stone. This is a wine to age, very concentrated, with high natural acidity. It is a soil wine, not a fruit wine. It needs time in bottle. Drink 2016-2022.

(contains 5% viognier; vinified with 40% whole clusters): Bright, deep ruby-red. Exhilarating perfume of flowers, minerals and white peach, with dark berries in the background. Deep, tactile, saline and energetic, boasting outstanding inner-mouth perfume. If the Nicasia Vineyard wine is horizontal, this one is more backward and vertical. Finishes sappy and long, with terrific lift. This utterly fascinating and firmly structured malbec held up beautifully for four days in the recorked bottle.