Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019 - 79

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Catena Zapata

Vasse Felix

ARGENTINA | MENDOZA
Informed by an ambitious research program, Catena's range of
malbecs is growing ever more nuanced.

AUSTRALIA | MARGARET RIVER
One of the pioneers in Margaret River cabernet, Vasse Felix
continues to prove and improve Western Australia's reputation
for fine cabernet sauvignon.

DR. LAURA
CATENA

The CaTenas have been a name in Argentine
malbec since 1902, when Italian immigrant Nicola Catena banked his future in the New World
on grape-growing. His son built the winery into
one of Argentina's best known in the 1960s; his
grandson, Nicolás, made it world-famous. Today,
Nicolás's daughter, Laura, has opened a new
chapter for the winery, spearheading the Catena
Institute of Wine, which conducts research in
cooperation with UC Davis and the Universidad
Nacional de Cuyo. The institute has financed
research on topics such as the effect of sunlight
intensity on wine grapes-an essential question
for people growing grapes at nearly 5,000 feet of
altitude-as well as work that played into establishing a country-wide sustainability protocol in
Argentina. Meanwhile, Alejandro Vigil, who's
been with the company since 2002, continues
to push forward the exploration Nicolás Catena started in 1992, when he shocked his fellow
growers by planting the Adrianna Vineyard at
4,757 feet of altitude. What he was searching for
at the time was more nuanced, finessed malbec.
These wines show that his bet on high-altitude
vineyards paid off. -T.Q.T.

VIRGINIA
WILLCOCK

2016 Mendoza River Stones Adrianna Malbec
($160, 94 points) Adrianna, the vineyard Nicolás
Catena began planting in 1992, is now the heart of
Catena Zapata, the company's premium brand, with
a dedicated winery in the vineyard. This wine comes
from a parcel planted on an old riverbed, where the
current left behind smooth stones rich in calcium carbonate. The wine is lean, bright and fresh, with fine
tannins shaping plummy fruit. It's an elegant, ageable malbec.

1902
OWNERS: The
Catena family
FOUNDED:

WINEMAKER:

Alejandro Vigil
VITICULTURIST:

Luis Reginato
ACRES OWNED:

1,285

2016 Mendoza Fortuna Terrae Adrianna Malbec
($140, 92 points) Alejandro Vigil's work soil-mapping the Adrianna Vineyard has resulted in several
cuvées. Fortuna Terrae is one of them, from a section
with deep loam over limestone, and it echoes the
richness of the soil in its generosity. It's almost ultraviolet, with a just-pressed freshness and intensity of
fruit matched by notes of spice and charred wood
from 24 months in French oak barrels. Impressive in
its clarity, it needs another decade in the cellar.

CASES PRODUCED:

441,666
ESTATE GROWN:

100%
IMPORTER:

MundoVino/
Winebow
Imports, NY

1967
Paul
Holmes à Court

FOUNDED:

enCouraged by a newspaper Clipping that compared Margaret River's climate to Bordeaux's,
Dr. Thomas Cullity spent two years surveying
possible vineyard sites near this Indian Ocean
surf town. A doctor from Perth, two hours north,
Cullity found a parcel overlooking the Wilyabrup Brook, two miles from the ocean, where
he began planting cabernet sauvignon, shiraz,
malbec and riesling in 1967. His first vintage,
1971, suffered from rot, and poaching by silvereyes-local grape-loving birds. Before the next
vintage, he purchased a peregrine falcon to try
and discourage the poachers. The raptor, immortalized on Vasse Felix's labels, almost immediately flew into the woods and was never seen
again. The Holmes à Court family purchased the
winery in 1987 and planted additional vineyards,
now spread over four sites with 815 acres, all of
it managed organically by Bart Molony. Virginia
Willcock, Vasse Felix's winemaker since 2006,
has built her cabernet style on the original plantings of the Houghton clone: "It gives these little
berries and these beautiful, see-through tannins," she says, citing its success in the extreme
maritime climate and cold afternoon winds of
Margaret River. -C.w.

2015 Margaret River Tom Cullity Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec ($165, 94 points) Vasse Felix's
top bottling grows at Tom Cullity's original eight-acre
planting. Willcock destems all the fruit for this wine
and allows the whole berries to ferment spontaneously; in 2015, she let close to half the lot macerate
on the skins for 34 days. Then a 16-month-long rest
in French oak barriques, half of them new, added
depth to the tannic structure. The wine is floral and
spicy and its plush fruit flavors settle comfortably into
those round tannins, feeling natural and complete.

OWNER:

WINEMAKER:

Virginia Willcock
VITICULTURIST:

Bart Moloney
ACRES OWNED:

815

2017 Margaret River Chardonnay ($45, 92
points) From a cool, late harvest at Vasse Felix's Karridale, Wilyabrup and Wallcliffe vineyards, this chardonnay fermented with ambient yeasts, then aged
on its lees for nine months in 50 percent new French
oak. It's broad and rich but still fresh, juggling Marcona almond and juicy apple flavors with finesse.

CASES PRODUCED:

2017 Mendoza Alta Malbec ($60, 90 points) While
Catena's focus has been increasingly on higher altitude vineyards, this blends fruit from six estate vineyards, some in Luján de Cuyo and others from higher
into the Andes, to create a balanced and versatile
malbec. It's hearty but not heavy, a modern interpretation of a traditional style.

150,000
ESTATE GROWN:

95%
IMPORTER:

Negociants USA/
Winebow
Imports, NY

2018 Margaret River Filius Chardonnay ($28,
91 points) Given the cool vintage, Willcock allowed
malolactic fermentation to mellow this chardonnay's
high acid levels. For Filius, she selects clones from
her estate sites that tend to produce lighter fruit flavors, imbuing the wine with juicy nectarine notes over
spicy oak tannin.
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