Nicolas Catena 2021 Catena Zapata

Professionele reviews

James Suckling (97)

Sweet tobacco, cigar box, berries and minerals. It gets a little zesty and citrusy on the nose. Really refined and juicy on the palate with lot of fine tannins. Silky, fluid and linear with a very elegant, soft-spoken finish. 46% cabernet sauvignon from Adrianna vineyard and 44% malbec and 10% cabernet franc from Nicasia vineyard. Really refined, long and Bordelais. This is already drinking really well, but it will hold like this for a long time.

Robert Parker (96)

The 2021 Nicolás Catena Zapata was produced with a blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Cabernet Franc and 25% Malbec. It comes from Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon massal selections of ungrafted vines from Nicasia in Altamira and Adrianna in Tupungato and Cabernet Franc from Agrelo. It fermented in small oak barrels, concrete and stainless steel tanks and matured in 2,000-liter oak foudres for 18 months. It's a powerful but fresh red with 13.7% alcohol and mellow acidity, perhaps because the Cabernet Sauvignon was picked earlier (and with lower yields) and they discarded the clay soils and went more for stony plots. The wine feels more streamlined and elegant. 2021 is a cool and very good year, following the path of the 2019, and the wine shows the classical herbal and spicy character of the Bordeaux varieties with pungent notes of black peppercorns and is spicier because of the high Cabernet Franc content