Catena Appellation La Consulta Malbec

The is a name behind renaissance of Malbec in Argentina. For decades, the Catena Zapata family has been pioneering the return of this Argentine variety to its full splendour. The one who clearly saw the potential was Nicolás Catena, a third generation Italian emigrant who, after traveling the world in the 1970s, discovered that the key to making inimitable wines was to plant the right variety in the right place. Following this premise, where there are no bad varieties, just the wrong places, he discovered in the high altitudes of Mendoza, Argentina, the place where his family had always made wines and where Malbec could once again shine with wines like Catena Appellation La Consulta Malbec.

Catena Appellation La Consulta Malbec is a single-variety red wine that belongs to a collection made by the Catena family to pay homage to the Argentine terroirs. Like the French communes of Burgundy, where small plots of land give their name to the Vins de Village, in Argentina there are also villages like Lulunta, Vista Flores, San Carlos and Tupungato that are worth highlighting and giving value to. In general, all of them are surrounded by historic vineyards of no more than four hectares, owned by several members of the same family. This is because these lands also follow the Napoleonic Civil Code where when somebody dies, the land must be divided equally among their heirs. Among these lands is La Consulta, a town in the department of San Carlos, where the vineyards lie at an altitude of 1,095 metres above sea level on clay soils of alluvial origin.

This location lines up with the winery’s own philosophy, where they have always sought the vineyards closest to the sky. The pioneer was Domingo Catena, who in 1950 began to make wine with grapes from these vineyards when no one else was doing so. Today his grandson, Nicolás Catena, continues to look up high, knowing that this has a direct relationship with quality. And this is indeed the case, because as you go up the mountain, the average temperature decreases, increasing the temperature differences between day and night, resulting in the perfect climate for the grapes to ripen.

The production of Catena Appellation La Consulta Malbec begins with a pre-fermentation maceration at low temperatures for about five days. Thanks to this process, where colour and aromas are extracted, it is possible to recreate the deep tone that made Domingo Zapata fall in love. Today, this detail is still given special attention. But this is not the only one. After fermentation, which will last about 16 days, Catena Appellation La Consulta Malbec also spends ten days in contact with the skins. Finally, Catena Appellation La Consulta Malbec spends almost a year in French oak barrels, where it will finish developing, expressing all the diversity of the terroir and the customs of these areas.