El Enemigo Bonarda

The youngest daughter of the driving force behind the new era of Argentine wine, Adrianna Catena has wine in her blood. And this is clear to see in everything she does. Together with the chief winemaker of the Catena Zapata family, she created the Aleanna winery. A project that aims to interpret the unique characteristics of each terroir and achieves this by rescuing some of the most forgotten ancient techniques of Argentine viticulture. A minimal intervention project that is known worldwide by the name of its El Enemigo wines and whose work has been recognised by being awarded the country’s first 100 Parker points.

El Enemigo Bonarda, a single-variety Bonarda wine, is made with the desire to create a transparent wine that reflects nothing other than its terroir. This is a unique and rare variety that originated in Italy and, thanks to how well it has adapted to the prosperous Uco Valley region of Mendoza, it has become the second most famous red grape in Argentina. This particular wine comes from 5 abandoned hectares that Alejandro luckily discovered and saved from being uprooted. These are old vines planted on sandy soils at an altitude of 1470 metres above sea level and, through respectful agriculture, they produce a grape that avoids high quantities and gains in quality. Once the grapes reach the winery, they ferment with native yeasts at a controlled temperature of 28ºC for 15 days, with 25 days of maceration. The wine is then aged in large 2nd and 3rd use French oak barrels for 15 months.

The result is El Enemigo Bonarda, a wine with a round, balanced and complex expression. Reasons enough for the Bonarda to have gone from being a blending grape to becoming one of Argentina’s favourites.