Catena Zapata vertical

[Dang]

Belonging to a wine club with a deep cellar has its advantage. Recently we had a series of verticals that involved wines mostly out of reach in most cellars. Thinking about reconfigurating your own cellar? It would take time! This vertical consisted of the following: '01, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09 Catena Zapata Cab Sauvignon. Not only this wine is the top wine of the Catena Bodega, smack in the Mendoza high country (around 900-1200 m) and reasonably accessible ($ 125-150) but by RP standard the 4th most consistent point garnerer in the world in the past 8-10 years. (Guess which wine has the most).
All still purple red, nose full of cassis, cherries, licorice, pain grille and chocolate. The '01 seemed to have extra leather while the '08 gave you healthy puffs of tobacco. Lovely smooth and long palate of fruits, mostly black, and spice (there were three 98 pointers in the group). What I miss was the ubiquitous Aussie eucalyptus!
The surprise from the enjoyable tasting was at the end when I found out that, although the bottles were labeled Cab S, all of them contained huge proportion of Malbec, some up to 48%! I was disappointed with the need of mislabeling for such a quality wine. It is unfortunate, there is a feeling of being cheated. Oh well...

[Mahmoud Ali]

Are you sure you were drinking Catena Zapata Cabernet? The Catena website has only Chardonnay and Malbecs wine under the Catena Zapata range. The one other wine in the Zapata range is simply called Nicolas Catena Zapata and it is a blend which varies from year to year.

The 2001 is 52%/48% Cab-Malbec,
the 2005 is 78%/22% Cab-Malbec,
the 2006 is 70%/30% Cab-Malbec,
the 2007 is 65%/35% Cab-Malbec,
the 2008 is 65%/35% Cab-Malbec,
and the 2009 is 75%/35% Cab-Malbec.

Sounds like this is the wine you were tasting.

Mahmoud.

[Dang]

Thanks Mahmoud. Those were the wines of the tasting, all by Nicolas Catena. My only complaint was, as mentioned, that the wines were labeled as Cab, not as Cab Malbec, just like the good old Aussie Cab Shiraz etc...the question is why! Otherwise, the wines were plenty tasty and certainly age worthy.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Hi Dang,

Maybe I wasn't clear about the Catena winery and website. They have several ranges in their portfolio:

- Their first tier of wines is under the Bodega Catena Zapata banner. There is no has no Cabernet wine here, only Malbec and Chardonnay. There is a wine that is called Nicolas Catena Zapata and it is their premium wine. It is the blend that I was referring to in my previous post.

- The second tier in their portfolio is under the Bodega y Vinedos Catena. Here the top range is called Catena Alta and here they have three wines, a Malbec, Cabernet, and Chardonnay. Then comes the regular Catena wines, also with a Malbec, Cabernet, and Chardonnay. Next in line is what they call their Apellation wines which they compare to Burgundy's village level wines. Here they have several Malbecs as well as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay.

From what you wrote in your first post I believe you were tasting their premium wine and from what I can see on their website it is not listed as a Cabernet and neither is it on the label. Here is a link to their website and the wines in their range:

http://www.catenawines.com/wines.php

Cheers ................ Mahmoud.