Cabernet Sauvignon Nicolas Catena, Bodega Catena Zapata 2020

2020 was a very dry and low-yielding year, with 20% to 30% less crop, and the grapes were picked early. The 2020 Nicolás Catena Zapata was produced with a blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc and 21% Malbec, higher in Franc than ever, for the first time more than Malbec, to compensate the warm and dry conditions. The wine is ripe and very peppery, with 13.9% alcohol and a pH of 3.64. It matured in new and second-use French oak barrels for 18 months. It was a healthy crop with concentration and ripeness, and the wine comes through as powerful and quite classical, still a little oaky, with power and balance. 60,000 bottles were filled in January 2020.

Wonderfully aromatic and nuanced on the nose, so alive and open. Energetic and lively on the palate, this has so much spark and brightness to it. Really compelling from the first sip, the tannins ample and cushioning the slick black fruit and accompanying savoury spices. Feels lean and taught, but with so much flair. Really a lovely expression, so generous and well defined. Youthful as you'd expect right now but when this softens it will be a beauty. Just gorgeous, with a minty fresh finish. Wine director Alejandro Vigil, winemaker Fernando Buscema.

Measured and steady release of supple brambled fruits, wonderfully fragrant and well judged, this combines depth of fruit flavour with softly expressed tannins, crayon, truffles, black pepper and smoked oak. Such a distinct and vibrant expression of these Left Bank Bordeaux varieties, givien a ripeness in Argentina that they are not always able to get in France, harnessed by the grace and careful precison of the Catena family. Brilliant vintage of this landmark Argentinian wine. Ungrafted vines, Fernando Buscema winemaker, Alejandro Vigil wine director, 3.64ph.