A dinner was held on August 20, 2008, at Varanda Grill, a São Paulo steak house, to taste the wines of Laura Catena. Ms. Catena was present and made a short and charming presentation. She described how she developed high standards when she was 20 years old and a medical school student in the US because her father (Nicolas Zapata) gave her a credit card exclusively so that she could buy the best wine in order to “study the competition.” She found that the wine she liked the most all came from old vines, so she began to seek out the oldest vines she could find upon her return to Argentina. These tended to be scattered in minuscule properties, so she began to work with these small landowners and buy their fruit, beginning a collaboration that continues to this day and is a source of great satisfaction to her. All of Laura Catena’s wines are aged exclusively in French oak (thank you!).
2006 Luca Chardonnay Altos de Mendoza 14% US Price $26/Brazil price $70
Golden straw color. Lovely acacia honey, citrus and light vanilla nose. First taste is tart and a tad dilute, perhaps the wine is still too cold. As it warms, and after food, it comes into better balance, and the previously subtle oak starts to become more prominent. Glycerin soap notes towards the end. A surprisingly delicate wine, integrating its alcohol very well, but the fruit in the mouth did not live up to its promise in the nose, even at room temperature. Good but, at this level, I prefer the more muscular and fruity Vina Cobos Bramare chardonnay.
2006 La Posta del Vinatero Angel Paulucci Vineyard Malbec Mendoza 14% US Price $14/Brazil price $25
Dark cherry color. Strong cherry and light violet aromas. Good acid/fruit balance and a touch of barnyard and green stems. Good quality but relatively one or two dimensional. Decent QPR, but nothing to rush out and buy.
2007 Luca Pinot Noir Altos de Mendoza 14.5% US Price $26/Brazil price $47
Translucent cherry color. Very subdued nose, giving nothing away. Extremely soft, smooth, seductive mouth feel. Cocoa with caramel edges (Marcia says crème brulée). Classy and very different from any other pinot I have ever tried. Marcia is disappointed by the lack of burgundian characteristics, but pinot is unequaled at expressing terroir, and that is excellent here, just very different from Burgundy. I am also amazed at how there is no trace of excess alcohol, despite the highest content of the evening. Amazingly well integrated, and a lesson in how high alcohol, per se, is no fault. My WOTN.
2006 Luca Syrah Altos de Mendoza 14.4% US Price $24/Brazil price $43
Dark purple color. Smells like teen spirit, I mean, malbec. Prominent chocolate and oak vanilla. Young, aggressive, tannic, astringent. Good fruit but somewhat straightforward. Muscular, but lacks complexity at this point, though some might develop with age. Marcia’s WOTN.
2006 Luca Malbec Altos de Mendoza 14% US Price $26/Brazil price $47
Dark violet color. Lovely smell, mingling chocolate with a touch of gasoline. Taste is classy but delivers less than smell. Less tannic than the syrah, but still astringent. Crème brulée/burnt sugar notes develop toward the end. I would place this on the same level as the Catena Alta Malbec. Good, but far from Achàval-Ferrer Finca level. Can’t help thinking that monovarietals are unequalled when the terroir is great, otherwise they can have difficulty competing with the easier complexity of assemblages.
2003 Beso de Dante Altos de Mendoza 13.9% US Price $45/Brazil price $70
The only assemblage of the evening, a mix of 80% cabernet and 20% malbec. Dark purple color. Curious aroma of slightly rotten apples or overly mature fruit. Good mouth feel, very tannic, complex and rich but somewhat reserved, possibly emerging from a dumb phase. Chocolate and sour cherry dominate the palate, with a sweet finish. Clearly the most age worthy of the evening’s wines, though the comparison may be unfair because this is the only one with some age. But I find this more intellectual than hedonistic and, at this price, I’m not sufficiently impressed to want some.
When Laura Catena came to our table, I complimented her on the pinot and its surprising integration of the high alcohol; she said she loves it too, and only wishes she could produce more, but the plot is minuscule. As for the alcohol, she said that the very high altitude of the vineyard generates an acidity that balances it (but many Mendoza vineyards are extremely high and yet taste excessively alcoholic to me, so I’m not sure that’s the answer). On the subject of acidity, since Argentina just beat Brazil in Olympic soccer, I felt comfortable asking Laura about reports that 2006 was the first vintage in recent memory that didn’t require acidulation. She didn’t appear too pleased with the question but said that her pinots never require acidulation, a practice that she claims to eschew. She then moved on to the next table.
