Bottle of Catena Alta - Altamira Malbec - 2021 available at Ashburn Wine Shop

Pickup only — Ashburn, VA

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Red · Malbec · Mendoza · Argentina · 2021

Catena Alta - Altamira Malbec - 2021

$30.00

This is Catena Zapata's single-appellation Malbec from Paraje Altamira in the Uco Valley, one of Mendoza's most limestone-driven, high-altitude sites. James Suckling scored the 2021 a 93, and Robert Parker's Wine Advocate gave it 92+, calling it his favorite in the whole appellation lineup for its freshness and nuance. It's aged eight months in a mix of new and used French oak and comes in at 13.5% alcohol, with the chalky, mineral texture that makes Altamira fruit so distinct.

Violets, blueberries, raspberries, licorice and orange peel. Medium-bodied, vibrant and crunchy, with bright lifted berry fruit, tight stemmy tannins, chalky mineral texture and real tension through the finish.

Argentine asado, especially lamb, or a well-charred ribeye. The tannins want fat and char.

Paraje Altamira sits in the Uco Valley at roughly 3,300 feet, on old alluvial soils full of limestone and rounded river stone, cooler and higher than most of Mendoza. Nicolás Catena pioneered high-altitude Malbec here starting in the 1990s; his daughter Laura and head winemaker Alejandro Vigil, at the helm since 2002, run the program today.