2010 Catena Zapata Malbec Adrianna Vineyard

My favourite of the Catena Malbecs, this is a classic high altitude style, showing intense colour and wonderfully vibrant aromas and flavours that are so typical of the variety. Supple tannins, deft use of oak and freshness and minerality balances the depth and power of the fruit, with 30% whole bunch adding an appealingly spicy twist. Drink: 2014-20

Packed with generous flavours of ripe red fruit and spices, this is a vibrant, full-bodied, tense malbec; the vineyard (1600m, one of the highest in the Uco valley) delivers intense freshness and a crisp acidity in a wine to cellar.

The awesome 2010 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard turned out to be one of my favorite wines of all that I tasted from Argentina, a wine that has me daydreaming of Gualtallary and the amazing Adrianna vineyard which is also the source of the superb White Bones and White Stones Chardonnays. Here the Malbec, grown at 1,480 meters above sea level in the Tupungato quarter of the Uco Valley, in the commune of Gualtallary where the soils are rich in calcium carbonate, is co-fermented with a little (7%) Viognier from that very same vineyard. It produces a sappy, tasty, umami-driven wine that has very high acidity (almost citric), 6.5 grams of it - so you might not like this wine if you prefer low acidity ones. It is austere and straight, but it packs quite a punch. The nose is somehow reticent, but it slowly displays floral notes and aromas of ripe fruit, some spices and aromatic herbs. The palate is also austere and straight, a very mineral wine, with a texture and an electricity akin to licking a chalky stone. This is a wine to age, very concentrated, with high natural acidity. It is a soil wine, not a fruit wine. It needs time in bottle. Drink 2016-2022.

(contains 5% viognier; vinified with 40% whole clusters): Bright, deep ruby-red. Exhilarating perfume of flowers, minerals and white peach, with dark berries in the background. Deep, tactile, saline and energetic, boasting outstanding inner-mouth perfume. If the Nicasia Vineyard wine is horizontal, this one is more backward and vertical. Finishes sappy and long, with terrific lift. This utterly fascinating and firmly structured malbec held up beautifully for four days in the recorked bottle.

This stylish wine opens with a floral, perfumed, high-altitude bouquet that shows red currant and raspberry aromas. Like the nose, the palate is fresh and not ponderous. Crisp raspberry and cassis flavors finish with freshness and elegance. Drink through 2020. - M.S.

Intense, fresh and concentrated, with vibrant and rich flavors of raspberry tart, red plum and wild cherry, accented by violet notes. Pure and minerally, showing white pepper and citrus fruit accents on the finish. Drink now through 2020. From Argentina.