It’s hard to believe that not even two months ago wine lovers packed themselves into the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre to learn about and try new wines from around the globe. On the last day of the Vancouver International Wine Festival, I was fortunate to find myself at an intimate dinner with Laura Catena at the Vancouver Club; the service, food and wine were flawless.
My dining companions were a handful of talented women from different areas of the wine industry. We had a wonderful evening sharing and discussing our industry experiences and learning more about Bodega Catena Zapata and Laura Catena herself.
This was my first opportunity to meet Laura Catena and I was impressed by her warmth and energy. She exudes passion and is an extremely knowledgeable, articulate and engaging speaker.
Wife, mother of three, doctor and now managing director of Bodega Catena Zapata, Laura Catena does more in one day than some people do in a week.
Laura was born into a family with a long history of winemaking in Argentina, but she chose to follow her dream of becoming a doctor. Her great, great grandfather, Nicola Catena, sailed to Argentina from Italy in 1898, planting his first Malbec vines in 1902. Eventually Nicola’s eldest son, Domingo, took over the family business. Domingo believed that Malbec could produce outstanding wines and he made Bodega Catena Zapata one of the largest vineyard holders in Mendoza. In the 1970’s it was Domingo’s turn to pass the torch to his son, Nicolàs, who had a PhD in Economics. In 1980, shortly after taking stewardship over the family business, Nicolàs went to work as a visiting scholar at the University of California.
For Nicolàs, California was the first wine region to successfully challenge the prestige of French wines; this took place at the Judgement of Paris in 1976. The “Judgement” was a blind tasting where the 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars placed first amongst a selection of wines from Bordeaux and California. Needless to say, Nicolàs was intrigued by the region and he and his wife would spend weekends exploring many California wineries.
Nicolàs left California inspired. He now had a clear vision – he wanted to make Argentinian wines that could stand on a world stage. As soon as he returned home, he sold off the branch of the winery that produced table wines, keeping only the fine winemaking division of Bodega Catena Zapata. He set to work scouting for the best vineyard locations in Argentina and premium Malbec clones.
Nicolàs worked for five years in their Angélica Vineyard, which was planted in 1930, to see if Malbec could produce the quality wines for which he was striving. 1994 was the first vintage that he was satisfied with and, when it was released to the world, it was met with accolades from Robert Parker and ranked as the number one Malbec by The Wall Street Journal.
In 1995 Laura Catena had just begun working as a doctor when her father called and asked her to represent the winery at a trade show in New York. At the show she saw the general attitude of attendees towards Argentinian wine. She watched as people lined-up at the tables of French and Italian wine producers, while hardly anyone stopped at her table, and some only stopped to use her spittoon. She knew that if her father was going to realize his dream, he would need to change people’s perception of Argentina, and she would have to help him. From that point onward, Laura would divide her time between San Francisco, where she worked as an emergency room physician, and Mendoza.
Laura states that her “hundred-year plan is to keep on elevating Argentinean wine. I’m passionate about making Malbec accepted as one of the great wines of the world—age-worthy, high-priced wine that should be collected.” [1]
During our dinner we had the pleasure of tasting the Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino 2004, which clearly illustrates the ageability of this outstanding wine.
My favourite food and wine pairing from the evening was a pork, potato, carrot and pea empanada, with just the perfect amount of spice, paired with the Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino 2015.
Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino 2015
This beautiful wine is 100% Malbec from the Nicasia and Angélica Vineyards. 20% of the grapes were whole cluster fermented while the remaining 80% were whole berry fermented using wild yeast. Fermentation took place in large 225-500 litre new French oak barrels over thirty days. Fermentation temperatures were kept low to preserve aromas and cap management was done by hand for gentle flavour and tannin extraction. Malolactic fermentation also took place in barrel and the wine was then aged in French oak barrels for 18 months.
After four hours in the decanter this Malbec offers aromas of ripe blackberries baking on warm pavement, black plum, lilac, pepper and cured meat.
This is a full-bodied Malbec with medium+ acidity and medium+ tannins.
The palate has good concentration of flavour beginning with herbaceous blackberries, black cherries, savoury mint, black pepper and vanilla, with raisin notes on the long finish.
The stunning label that graces this special bottle was drawn by artist Rick Shaefer. It tells a story through four female figures: Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Immigrant, Phylloxera and Bodega Catena Zapata.
Eleanor of Aquitaine
“Eleanor of Aquitaine represents the birth of Malbec. She is a strong, Old Wold presence, lingering at the bridge in Cahors, where Malbec came into its own.”
Eleanor of Aquitaine was born in 1122 and she lived until she was 82 years of age. She inherited Aquitaine when her father William X, Duke of Aquitaine, died and named her as his heir, making her the Duchess of Aquitaine.
Aquitaine formed the southwestern corner of France, which included Cahors, famous for its “black wine” made from Malbec. Eleanor was “known to be an independent young woman, and a champion of the hardy, rustic wines of Cahors, her heartland.” [2]
Eleanor’s first husband was Louis the VII and when Louis became the King of France, she made sure that the wines of Aquitaine became the royal wine.
Unfortunately, Eleanor was only able to bear two daughters for Louis and thus their marriage was annulled in 1154. This left Eleanor free to marry Henry of Normandy, ten years her junior, who eventually became King of England.
The Immigrant
“The Immigrant symbolizes the movement to the New World and the unknown explorers and adventurers who connected Europe with the Americas.”
The “Immigrant” is a depiction of Ana Mosceta who was born in Marche, Italy and immigrated to Argentina as a child.
In 1898 an 18-year-old boy from Marche, named Nicola, came to stay with the Mosceta family. He wanted to marry Ana’s sister, but she wouldn’t wait for him when he went to Mendoza to plant his vineyard, thus Nicola married Ana instead.
Ana worked with Nicola in the vineyard and he trusted her to plant his vines. Their first son, Domingo, was born during their second year in Mendoza. He had to leave school at the age of nine to help his father in the vineyard, but Ana promised herself that her other five children would finish school and go to university, and they did.
Domingo gave birth to his first son, Nicolás, and Ana would eventually teach him how to talk to the vines.
Phylloxera
“Phylloxera personifies the death of Malbec in the Old World, which enabled its rebirth in the new.”
Malbec as a varietal has a long history in France and is one of the six grape varietals allowed in red Bordeaux wines. On April 17, 1853 the president of Argentina, Domingo Faustino Sarmienot, sent Michel Aime Pouget (a French soil expert) to bring back new vines from France and one of the vines he returned with was Malbec.
Not long after this expedition, many vineyards in France, as well as the rest of Europe, were ruined by the Great French Wine Blight; a phylloxera outbreak that originated in North America and was carried across the Atlantic.
Despite the blight in Europe, the pre-Phylloxera vines secured by president Domingo Faustino Sarmienot were safe in Argentina, where the high elevation and dry, sunny weather produced ideal conditions under which Malbec would thrive.
Bodega Catena Zapata
“Finally, there is Bodega Catena Zapata, represented by Adrianna Catena, who depicts birth, earth, and motherhood, sharing the riches of the New World.”
Although many people believe this to be a depiction of Laura Catena herself, this is indeed her sister Adrianna. The family thought, who better to represent the winery and the family than Adrianna who spent so much time in the vineyard with her father Nicolás when she was a child.
Footnotes
[1] Andrews, B. (December 21, 2018). The Mission-Driven Career of Laura Catena. Retrieved from: http://www.catenawines.com/mission-driven.php
[2] Clancy, T. (June 7, 2011). Eleanor of Aquitaine, Teenage Queen of France and the Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Malbec. Retrieved from: https://tomasclancy.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/eleanor-of-aquitaine-teenage-queen-of-france-and-the-rise-fall-and-rise-again-of-malbec/
Love the detail in your post, Deb. The photos are stunning, too.