James Suckling (100)

This is really something. There’s purity and focus to the aromas of crushed berries, licorice and black tea, which follow through to an integrated palate of extremely fine, melted tannins that spread to the very ends of the wine. This is all about balance and length. It really is an emotional wine. Great follow-up to the 2017, which was also 100 points. Drinkable now, but better after 2024.

James Suckling (100)

This is really something. There’s purity and focus to the aromas of crushed berries, licorice and black tea, which follow through to an integrated palate of extremely fine, melted tannins that spread to the very ends of the wine. This is all about balance and length. It really is an emotional wine. Great follow-up to the 2017, which was also 100 points. Drinkable now, but better after 2024.

James Suckling (98)

So bright and aromatic with flowers and blackberries, as well as some black olives. Full-bodied with lots of tannins, yet they are so fine and integrated and spread across the palate. This is all whole-cluster fermentation and 18 months in large oak casks. Needs about four or five years to come together.

Wine Advocate (100)

Like the other Malbecs from Adrianna Vineyard, the 2016 Adrianna Vineyard River Stones was bottled a little earlier, and the time in oak was shortened. It was a most unusual year that was cold and rainy and allowed for no irrigation. This has good ripeness and sharp acidity, making it powerful but extremely fresh, with a backbone of acidity that lifts the wine up and makes it extremely long and persistent. In fact, the wine blows me away with an unusual combination of power and elegance; it shows detailed and nuanced, with subtle aromas of violets, spices, tobacco and wet chalk. It has a velvety texture with ultra refined, fine-grained tannins. It is precise in the acidity and on the palate, with the textbook chalky tannins and a sapid, almost salty finish. This is serious, austere, mineral, long, compact, harmonious and concentrated, yet it feels light and has that somewhat contradictory powerful elegance. This has to be the best wine ever produced at Catena. I'd love to have a time machine and taste this wine in 20 years' time... There are some 3,800 bottles of this.

James Suckling (100)

Incredible aromas of blackberries, hot stones, wet earth and flowers. Full-bodied, it floats across the palate with ultra-fine tannins that melt into the wine. Superb, long finish of subtle fruit and terroir-defined subtleties. Try in 2022, but already a dream to taste.

Vinous (94)

Since 2015, this wine has been made using grapes from two vineyards located about a thousand meters above sea level, one in Angélica in Lunlunta, Maipú, and the other in Nicasia in San Carlos, Uco Valley, both harvested in two stages and fermented in open barrels, 20% with whole bunches. Dark purple in the glass. The alluring nose delivers ripe dark fruit with hints of herbs and fine wood that make for a balsamic red with further notes of thyme and violets. Sugary at first with good volume; the gentle tannins allow the wine to flow genially in a classical, nuanced Mendoza Malbec style.

James Suckling (99)

This is made from over 100-year-old vineyards and offers blackberries with blue fruit and dark chocolate. Shows bark and black truffle undertones, too. Tight and more focused than in past vintages. The quality of the tannins is more precise and fine. Blackberries and black truffles at the end. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (99)

This is made from over 100-year-old vineyards and offers blackberries with blue fruit and dark chocolate. Shows bark and black truffle undertones, too. Tight and more focused than in past vintages. The quality of the tannins is more precise and fine. Blackberries and black truffles at the end. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (99)

This is made from over 100-year-old vineyards and offers blackberries with blue fruit and dark chocolate. Shows bark and black truffle undertones, too. Tight and more focused than in past vintages. The quality of the tannins is more precise and fine. Blackberries and black truffles at the end. Drink or hold.

Wine Advocate (98)

The 2018 Malbec Catena Zapata Nicasia Vineyard, from a vineyard planted in Altamira in 1996 from an old massal selection, has contained ripeness, reflecting the less warm vintage (after 2017). The grapes were picked very early but with good ripeness because of the low yields in a very dry year. It fermented in open-top barrels with 100% full clusters and indigenous yeasts and matured in 500-liter oak barrels. It's a balanced and elegant Malbec with some restraint and a very fine thread in the palate, with really fine tannins. It follows the path of the phenomenal 2017, fine and elegant. 12,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2020.

James Suckling (97)

A big, rich red with blackberry, chocolate, toasted oak, peat and flowers. It’s full-bodied and layered and very flavorful in the finish. Still very youthful, but shows tension and focus. Drink or hold.

Decanter (97)

The 2016 vintage is a classic example, a superb blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with 31% Malbec and 8% Cabernet Franc that’s still in its infancy. Subdued aromas of cassis, black cherries and nuanced herbaceous and tobacco notes. A lovely fluid entrance builds on concentration and complexity. Malbec’s seductive juiciness joins a vertical Cabernet structure, tannins and integrated oak, with a long, lingering finish. A wine to wait for.

James Suckling (98)

This has a complex nose of baked blackberries, grilled plums, dried earth, moss, pine cones, sandalwood, charcoal and cloves. It’s medium-bodied with firm, tightly knit tannins. Wow. So much going on. Layered, seamless and silky. Incredible length. Keeps going. 42% cabernet sauvignon, 30% malbec and 28% cabernet franc. Try this from 2024.

James Suckling (98)

A dense and bright chardonnay that shows incredible depth and freshness with dried pineapple, licorice, aniseed and lemongrass. Full-bodied, layered and very, very long. Linear and exciting. Goes on for minutes. Release in October 2018. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (98)

Honeysuckle, ripe pear and some dried apple. So perfumed. Full-bodied with incredible intensity and length. So much green-apple character and lots of flowers. Dried mango, too. The touch of flor growth in the barrel gives this unique character. Goes on for minutes on the finish. Endless, vibrant acidity. Minerally texture. Drink now or hold.

James Suckling (98)

Honeysuckle, ripe pear and some dried apple. So perfumed. Full-bodied with incredible intensity and length. So much green-apple character and lots of flowers. Dried mango, too. The touch of flor growth in the barrel gives this unique character. Goes on for minutes on the finish. Endless, vibrant acidity. Minerally texture. Drink now or hold.

Wine Advocate (98)

My favorite of the Adrianna whites, the 2016 White Stones Chardonnay was cropped from a low-yielding, cool and wet year, very unusual weather in Mendoza. It's sharp, austere, mineral and long. No matter how impressed I was with the 2015 or the two vintages of the White Bones I tasted next to it, this stole the show. It has a combination of mineral notes that transmit a serious sensation with hints of flowers, spices and herbs that show in a very subtle way. The palate is liquid chalk, with sharp and pungent flavors, nicely textured. It's precise, linear, long and sharp, with great length and persistence. It will be fascinating to see how this wine evolves in bottle, because I think we can have a big surprise in ten years from now. 6,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2017.

Wine Advocate (98+)

The outstanding 2018 White Stones Chardonnay epitomizes the expression of the grape in the cooler-climate and high-altitude location of the Adrianna vineyard in Gualtallary. There is rectitude, austerity and elegance, a subtle wine with great clout and intensity that comes through as chiseled, focused, symmetric and pure, more in the style of Roulot than Coche-Dury, with superb integration of all the elements and fine minerality. This is more about the place and vintage than the grape, which feels like a good way to transmit the chalky soils of the selected plots. Simply superb, possibly the finest vintage for this bottling so far. 6,600 bottles were filled in May 2019.

Wine Advocate (99)

The amazing 2019 White Stones Chardonnay comes from a select group of 27 rows planted on lot I of the Adriana Vineyard, and the composition of those rows is soil with white oval stones covered by gravel. The Adriana Vineyard is planted at an altitude of almost 1,500 meters above sea level, in the district of Gualtallary in Tupungato. The stony soil prevents deep root growth, providing optimum drainage. This soil, which is very poor in organic matter, contributes to the vines' permanent stress conditions. The cool nights allow for very slow ripening, optimal acid retention and low yields. This is always a more austere wine than the White Bones, more mineral and restrained, less aromatic, with great balance, a little higher in alcohol and with very good acidity, rounder and more Meursault than Chablis but still with citrus freshness and pungent flavors and always some spice (curry) because of the aging in barrel with flor. This year, the two whites show a more marked personality, possibly aided by the style of the cooler year but also because the winery has a better understanding of the places. It's still very young and undeveloped; it's drinkable now, but with more time in bottle, it should develop greater complexity. Now the finish shows acidity and salt, which make it very vibrant. 6,600 bottles were filled in May 2020.

Vinous (97)

The 2020 Chardonnay Adrianna Vineyard White Stones from Gualtallary, Uco Valley, was barrel-aged for 16 months. Greenish-yellow in the glass. The intense, layered nose presents bold aromas of green apple, pear, hints of linden blossom and ginger with touches of lemon and herbs. In the mouth, it’s concentrated, rooted in a lively, heightened freshness while maintaining the variety’s expansive flow, which also delivers salinity and long-lasting flavor. A thrilling white that defines this nook of the Uco Valley.

James Suckling (99)

Super refined and beautiful with flowers, spices, dried fruit and hints of stones. Medium to full body with very fine tannins and a gorgeous finish. Shows great finesse and depth. Savory character, as always, but in check. Drink in 2022.

James Suckling (100)

This is the greatest Cheval des Andes ever. Discrete aromas of blackberries, flowers, stone and licorice. So perfumed. The integration of fruit, tannins and acidity is fantastic. Full-bodied, tight and solid with beautiful depth and integrity. Extremely long and exciting. Complex and compelling with such refinement and length. A blend of 62% malbec and 38% cabernet sauvignon. Available in September 2020. Better after 2024.

Wine Advocate (98)

The 2018 Cheval des Andes is a blend of 70% Malbec and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon fermented in small lots in 3,000- to 8,000-liter tanks and matured 40% in 225-liter oak barrels, 40% in 400-liter oak barrels and the remaining 20% in 2,500-liter oak vats for 13 months. Ninety percent of the oak used was French and the rest a blend of Austrian, Slovenian and German oak, 50% of it new. 2018 has been one of the best vintages in recent times in Mendoza, and the wine shows it. It's a cooler vintage, and the wine has improved in freshness and elegance without losing any clout. It's 14.5% alcohol and has a pH of 3.73. This is young, juicy, elegant and balanced and still has some herbal and toasted notes; it's medium to full-bodied, with the creamy and luxurious texture of the modern Bordeaux, ultra fine tannins and a long, dry and precise finish. It's still undeveloped and seems to have all the components and the balance between them for a long and positive development in bottle. With wines like this, I sometimes wish I had a time machine so I could see them in 20 years from now... I think this is the finest Cheval des Andes I've ever tasted. 100,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2020.

Wine Advocate (98)

The 2020 Cheval des Andes was harvested from the last of February for the first time ever. It was Gabillet's second vintage at Cheval des Andes, and that year, he had to start without waiting for Pierre Olivier Clouet and Pierre Lurton from Cheval Blanc; when they arrived, they had finished picking the Malbec, which surprisingly was fresher in Las Compuertas (because of the higher percentage of clay?) than in Altamira (where the vines suffered more stress), saving the freshness. They now harvest using cold trucks (for the first time), and they also started earlier in the morning (six in the morning, impossible earlier in Mendoza...), which he reckons was very good for the precision of the wine. They used 40% 225-liter barrels, 40% 400-liter oak barrels and 20% 2,500-liter foudres, half of them new and with an élevage of 15 months on average, depending on the lots and varieties from 12 to 18 months. The final blend was 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Malbec and 2% Petit Verdot, which makes a comeback as it was not used since 2016. The key was to finish the fermentation of the Petit Verdot without skins, and that way, they have been able to use it in the blends of 2021, 2022 and 2023 in small but increasing percentages. This is slightly riper than 2019, with a little more alcohol (14.5%) and with very good structural tannins but saving the freshness, and it has the spicy side from the Petit Verdot (Gabillet talks about white pepper). The wine has the ultra sleek and polished texture and the elegance and the balance that is the signature here; the wine is very clean and precise. I see very good regularity across the three vintages I tasted next to each other—this 2020 and the 2018 and 2019. Overall, this is a triumph over the adverse conditions of the vintage. They produced their usual 100,000 bottles (since 2018), as they are renewing their vineyards and want to keep the volume stable. They produce this volume from the 36 productive hectares they have in Las Compuertas and Altamira. There are some more changes: in 2020, they went for a lighter bottle, weighing 100 grams less than the one they used in 2018 and 2019, but close to 300 grams less than the bottle from before. It's also a slimmer bottle, always thinking about the environment. They are very focused on agroecology, accelerating the regenerative viticulture and using cover crops; they have planted 1,900 trees in the last three years, creating small clusters of biodiversity for birds. They have transplanted some centenary olive trees and keep their sheep and lamas on the property. Very green-minded.

Tim Atkin MW (97)

It’s not just because I’ve visited this spectacular site that I love the Malbec it produces, although that helps. This really is one of the great wines of the world, with amazing perfume of wild herbs and white pepper, layers of red and dark berry fruit, stylish oak, filigree tannins and a finish that lingers on the palate.

Tim Atkin MW (95)

Made “like a flan”, according to Ale Vigil, this is a co-fermented blend of Cabernet Franc and 8% Malbec, with lots of whole bunches and aged in old wooden foudres. Zesty and fresh, with the low alcohol and focus that are a feature of El Enemigo style, it’s savoury and bright with salty minerality and graphite and green herb flavours.

James Suckling (98)

This is really amazing with an exotic dried-fruit character of pineapple and mangoes. Full-bodied, rich and fruity with cream, pie-crust and caramel character. Crazy chardonnay with a little Jura style and some flor undertones. It really does have flor in the barrel when aging. Love. Get it. Drink now.

James Suckling (98)

A tight and beautiful white with a dense palate of beautiful, ripe lemons and apples. Layered and refined with phenolic tension. Complex yeast and hints of oak and flor. Full body. Great length. 80 per cent flor-growth in barrel. Drink now.

James Suckling (97)

This is another rock-star chardonnay from here with dried-apple, pear-skin, crushed-stone and peach-pit character. Full body. Creamy texture. Phenolic form and a long, flavorful finish. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (96)

Cooked apple, lemon curd and light vanilla on the nose, together with stone, mineral and some dried flowers. Medium to full body with a creamy texture and beautiful fruit. Hints of vanilla and pie crust in the aftertaste. Always great quality for the price. Drink or hold.