Catena Zapata: The High-Altitude Revolution That Changed Argentine Wine

Caroline Fuller and the customary welcome glass of sparkling DV Catena Nature

Mendoza's modern wine story cannot be told without Catena Zapata. Our visit began with the Head of Hospitality; Caroline Fuller, who took us through the winery and its history before we sat down for a tasting with Winemaker Ernesto Bajda and Export Director Marcelo Marasco. The combination of the tour and the wines offered a useful perspective on the Catena story: its long pursuit of altitude, its work with different vineyard sites, and its role in establishing Argentina as a producer of serious, age-worthy fine wines.
The Roots of a Century-Old Vision
That story began in 1898 when Nicola Catena, an Italian immigrant from Marche, arrived in Mendoza. In 1902, he planted his first Malbec vineyard in Lunlunta, naming it Angélica in honor of his mother. For decades, the family produced wine in the traditional Argentine style—concentrating on volume and local consumption.
The turning point came in the early 1980s. While serving as a visiting professor of economics at UC Berkeley, Nicola's grandson, Nicolás Catena Zapata, spent time in Napa Valley. Watching California winemakers successfully challenge European classics by matching French varieties to specific California microclimates convinced Nicolás that Argentina could do the same. Upon returning to Mendoza, he sold off the family's table-wine division to focus entirely on premium fine wine, embarking on a search for cooler terroirs that took him beyond traditional regions and into the high-altitude reaches of the Uco Valley.

(L to R) Ernesto Bajda, Ajit Balgi, Marcelo Marasco.

Going Higher
In the 1990s, Nicolás began planting where others thought grapes would never ripen. Adrianna Vineyard in Gualtallary was planted at around 1,460 metres, while Nicasia Vineyard in Paraje Altamira sits at approximately 1,095 metres. At the time, planting Malbec at such elevations was considered a massive agricultural risk.
The significance of altitude at Catena is not simply that the vineyards are high; elevation fundamentally changes the conditions under which the vines ripen. At Adrianna, the combination of high altitude, intense ultraviolet sunlight, and cool mountain temperatures produces a very different growing environment from Mendoza's warmer, lower-lying plains.
To scientifically back these observations, Dr. Laura Catena founded the Catena Institute of Wine in 1995. The Institute’s research demonstrated higher natural acidity, distinct minerality, denser tannins in Malbec, and exceptional focus in Chardonnay grown at these extreme heights. The decision to plant Adrianna was no longer just an experiment in cool-climate viticulture; it became the scientific foundation of modern Argentine fine wine.
Adrianna: Where the Experiment Became a Vineyard
The Adrianna Vineyard wines we tasted provided perhaps the clearest expression of this philosophy. The Chardonnay and Malbec come from the same broad site, yet demonstrate why Catena has spent decades studying the vineyard in detail. Adrianna sits in Gualtallary at close to 1,500 metres, on alluvial soils covered with gravel and calcareous deposits. Catena's research into the vineyard eventually moved beyond simply identifying the site as "high altitude" to understanding the micro-parcel variations within it.

Catena Zapata Winery

Nicasia: Another Expression of Malbec
The Nicasia 2023 Malbec offered a useful contrast. Nicasia is in Paraje Altamira, in the southern part of the Uco Valley, at around 1,095 metres. Its position, soils, and climatic conditions differ noticeably from those of Adrianna. Catena describes the vineyard as having shallow soils with gravel and large rounded stones, providing strong drainage.
The distinction between Nicasia and Adrianna is central to understanding Catena's approach. Both are high-altitude vineyards, but altitude alone does not make them interchangeable. Catena's 2023 harvest report makes this point particularly well: while spring frost severely reduced yields across lower sites in Mendoza, Adrianna was largely spared due to its steep slope and cold-air drainage, whereas Nicasia experienced a greater reduction in yields. Determining the right harvest moment for each specific parcel remains paramount.
From Malbec to Argentina's Cabernet
The tasting also moved beyond Malbec. The Birth of Cabernet 2022 and Nicolás Catena Zapata 2022 demonstrated another important aspect of the Catena project: the ambition was never to make Argentina synonymous only with Malbec.
Cabernet Sauvignon has been part of the family's high-end winemaking programme for decades. The flagship Nicolás Catena Zapata blend draws on several historic vineyards—including La Pirámide, Domingo, Adrianna, and Nicasia—bringing together distinct terroir profiles rather than relying on a single site. This evolution demonstrates that Mendoza could produce serious, age-worthy wines across multiple varieties.
Malbec Argentino: More Than a Wine
Malbec Argentino 2022 sits at the center of that history. Built around old vines from the family's Angélica and Nicasia vineyards, the vines derive from a proprietary massal selection originating from the historic Angélica Vineyard ("Catena Cuttings").
The wine represents more than a single vintage; it is an expression of the family's long experiment with Malbec—from its Mendoza roots to the high-altitude sites that eventually changed the direction of Argentine wine. That history is deliberately reflected in the wine's label, which traces Malbec's journey from France to Argentina and its subsequent revival in the New World.

Ajit Balgi with Catena Zapata Wines

What Catena Changed
The most important contribution of Catena Zapata may ultimately have little to do with any individual bottle. Nicolás Catena's decision to plant at elevations where ripening was considered risky helped establish a new direction for Mendoza. The family subsequently invested heavily in research into climate, soils, vineyard micro-zones, and Malbec selection.
Today, high-altitude Mendoza is central to the identity of Argentine fine wine. But that is easier to appreciate when you understand how unconventional the idea once was. Our tasting with Ernesto Bajda and Marcelo Marasco brought that history into focus. The Adrianna Chardonnay and Malbec showed the potential of one of Mendoza's most important high-altitude sites; Nicasia demonstrated how another vineyard could produce a distinctly different expression; Malbec Argentino connected those vineyards to the family's longer Malbec story; and Nicolás Catena Zapata showed that the ambition extends far beyond one grape variety.
The Legacy of the High-Altitude Experiment
Catena Zapata's story is often told through altitude, and for good reason. But altitude was only the beginning. The more important achievement was recognising that Mendoza could not be understood as one homogeneous wine region. Different elevations, soils, exposures, and climatic conditions could produce wines with very different identities—and those differences were worth studying rather than blending away. That is what makes Catena Zapata significant. The winery did not simply take Argentine wine higher into the Andes; it helped make high altitude itself part of the vocabulary of Argentine fine wine.