CATENA ZAPATA ADRIANNA VINEYARD
MENDOZA, ARGENTINA
WHY BUY:
Perfect vintage, perfect score ... and a perfect price. Catena Zapata's cold-climate, old-vine, 100-point White Stones Chardonnay 2024 clocks in at only $120, and in our book ranks as one of the finest expressions of this varietal in the world right now. Look out, Burgundy!
PEDIGREE:
As Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate has rightly observed, "It is difficult to avoid hyperbole when discussing the Catena family's impact on Argentine wine.” Parker launched Catena Zapata on its current trajectory, likening one bottling to a "great vintage of Lafite-Rothschild.” Not long after, many began referring to Catena Zapata as Argentina’s first Grand Vin. To this day it remains the oldest Argentine family winery still in family hands.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING:
The critics could barely contain their enthusiasm over this lineup. Jeb Dunnuck handed the White Stones Chardonnay 2024 a perfect 100 points, calling it "simply outstanding in every way," a "singular, world-class expression of cold-climate Chardonnay" built on wild-yeast ferment and natural acidity, "a buoyant pillow on which the creamy, concise fruit is able to rest." He gave the same perfect 100 to the Mundus Bacillus Terrae 2023: “wow,” he wrote, and went on to admire the "buzz and structure” and the way the concrete and whole-cluster work lend the wine a "lovely juiciness." Vinous awarded 99 points to the White Bones Chardonnay 2024, a wine "singular in profile," "dry and highly expressive,” and with a chalky texture and an "elevated freshness that sharpens the palate." James Suckling reached for rare superlatives in his assessment of the Adrianna River 2023, a 98-pointer with "so much tension” at its core, along with "delicate fruit and extreme, focused tannins that are balanced and precise." The Fortuna Terrae 2023 also claimed 98 points, with Vinous hailing it as "long and fruit-driven, with layered depth” and "delicate energy."
OUR TASTING NOTES:
Let’s start with the Chardonnays, which will altogether change your perception of what Argentina can do. The White Stones is crystalline and pure, with a vein of flinty minerality running through it and a wonderful citrusy lift. By the time you've begun to work out what you're drinking you've already reached for the next sip. The White Bones is the more taut and saline, a wine of thrilling tension, with a laser-like acidity that gives definition to its expansive and dimensional palate. The Malbecs tell a story of century-old vines at extreme altitude, and the expert custodians behind them. The Argentino is all elegance and perfume, its tannins so fine they seem to disappear; the Fortuna Terrae is full-bodied, deep, and structured, yet brims with freshness and energy. The River is vibrant and nervy, a wine that for all its richness and concentration remains taut and alive. As for the Mundus Bacillus Terrae, it’s a wine of mystery and majesty, with a quiet intensity that builds from the first nosing to a long, lingering close. We loved its persistence, its depth, its danceability.
THE STORY:
Perhaps never before has a wine-producing country owed so much of its global standing to a single producer. What is rarer still is that the whole phenomenon has unfolded across just three generations. Nicola Catena, an Italian immigrant, planted his first Mendoza vineyard in 1902, but it was his grandson Nicolás who changed everything in the 1980s, back when Argentine wine was still treated as a curiosity. An economist by training, Nicolás chased higher and higher elevations with a methodical patience, from La Pirámide in Agrelo to Domingo and Adrianna in Tupungato and, finally, Nicasia in Paraje Altamira. Today Laura Catena runs the estate alongside winemaking director Alejandro Vigil, whom the locals have taken to calling "The Messi of Wine." The jewel of the estate is the Adrianna Vineyard, sitting at a nearly perilous altitude where fierce sunlight, cool air, and poor soils all come together to stress the vines into extraordinary concentration.
WHAT TO PAIR THEM WITH:
The Chardonnays are sublime with lobster, shrimp al ajillo, and creamy, cheesy risottos. The Malbecs all but demand thick slabs of grilled meat — most ideally, a charred, juice-dripping porterhouse or ribeye.
FUN FACT:
The word "malbec" comes from two French words, mal, meaning bad, and bec, meaning mouth. To badmouth, in other words. Back in Cahors, the name started life as an insult … which the grape has spent the ensuing centuries thoroughly avenging.
OUR GUARANTEE:
We always buy and source directly from the estate to ensure that your wines arrive in your hands as they should: with pristine provenance. Secure your bottles and cases today!
*Offer NOT valid in-store. This offer is made pre-arrival, with wines estimated to be delivered to your preferred store in Winter 2026 (Dec. 21st - Mar. 20th, 2027). With the supply chain issues that we are seeing globally, there may be some unforeseen delays which could affect the ETA. All sale prices are the lowest available at Total Wine & More and ONLY valid through Concierge Sales. No further discounts or coupons may be applied. Offer not valid in KS, MI, NE, NY, OK, or TN. This offer will expire on Monday, August 24th, 2026.