2020 El Enemigo Semillon, Mendoza

A pergola in Agrelo, close to Catena’s iconic pyramid winery, is the source of this old-vine Semillón. Creamy and textured, with a savoury top note from partial ageing under flor, leesy, wild herb flavours, stylish oak and a focused, balanced, refreshing finish.

This has an intense nose of dried apple, grilled pineapple, cedar, salted butter, waxed lemon, green olive and smoked almond. It’s medium-bodied with a layered and concentrated palate. Saline, toasty and smoky. Drink now or hold.

The 2020 Sémillon El Enemigo from Agrelo, Luján de Cuyo hails from a 70-year-old vineyard. Aged with flor for a year before 15 months in barrels, it’s a golden yellow in the glass. On the nose there are notes of flint, honey, a little hazelnut and cashew nut underneath the flor-based aromas of white flowers and pear. In the mouth, however, it’s broad with a good, voluminous flow and a clove backdrop. Intense and creamy with a sustained layer of salinity, the stylistic acrobatics have opened up new possibilities for the varietal.

The creamy 2020 Semillon was produced with grapes from Agrelo in Luján de Cuyo. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in oak barrels, 10% of them new, for 15 months, 20% of them without topping up, which made the wine develop a veil of flor yeast. It's expressive and aromatic with notes of white flowers and spices, and it has a light to medium-bodied palate with 13.5% alcohol and very good freshness for a warm year.