2004 - Catena Zapata, Nicolas Catena Zapata

The 2004 Nicolas Catena Zapata is blended with 78% Cabernet Sauvignon and 22% Malbec, and has a deep garnet color. It needs a fair bit of swirling to unlock the scents of stewed plums, boysenberry preserves, and crème de cassis with hints of violets, charcuteries, tar, and clove oil. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is concentrated, delivering mouth-coating blackcurrant preserves and firm, ripe, grainy tannins with seamless freshness, finishing long and spicy. It has a long life ahead!

Catena Zapata’s flagship is the Nicolas Catena Zapata, a Cabernet Sauvignon-Malbec blend. The 2004 Nicolas Catena Zapata is composed of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Malbec. It spent 18 months in 100% new French oak. A saturated black purple in color, it has an aristocratic perfume of pain grille, mineral, espresso, saddle leather, cassis, black currant, and black raspberry. Opulently textured, complex, ripe, and sweet on the palate, it maintains a sense of elegance as well as power. It demands 10-15 years of further cellaring and should still be providing pleasure at age 50. It strikes me as being Argentina’s equivalent of a great vintage of Lafite-Rothschild. When all is said and done, Catena Zapata is the Argentina winery of reference – the standard of excellence for comparing all others. The brilliant, forward-thinking Nicolas Catena remains in charge, with his daughter, Laura, playing an increasingly large role. The Catena Zapata winery is an essential destination for fans of both architecture and wine in Mendoza. It is hard to believe, given the surge in popularity of Malbec in recent years, that Catena Zapata only began exporting Malbec to the United States in 1994. Importer: Billington Imports, Springfield, VA; tel. (703) 455-4700; www.catenawines.com

Softened to a sunset brick colour at 20 years old, grilled and smoky turmeric spice on the opening, this has a generosity and warmth to it that is totally delicious. Waves of blackberry and olive pit, oak influence still in evidence, giving campfire notes that weave through the fine tannic frame. 80% new oak for ageing.

(14% alcohol; 5.8 g/l acidity; 3.72 pH): Full medium red. Vibrant, expressive scents of cassis, black cherry, licorice and violet. Densely packed and quite firmly built, conveying terrific juicy intensity and a restrained sweetness to its youthful dark fruit flavors. Some peppery acidity gives this very penetrating wine a slight leanness. With its firm vertebral column, this wine still needs time to gain in pliancy. Incidentally, this was the first vintage of the Nicolás Catena Zapata to include some Malbec vinified with whole clusters, and that no doubt explains its peppery element.

Attractively open-knit scent with the classic Malbec violet and black cherry. On the palate, the door is flung open: broad, chewy black fruit with meatiness, fine tannins, high acid and great complexity. (RH)