Costco Connection - August 2011

wine connection

It’s a famıly affaır Laura Catena carries on vintner’s legacy Laura Catena nd her father, Nicolas, have created world- class wines in Argentina.

ABOVE PHOTOS COURTESY OF BODEGA CATENA ZAPATA WINERY

By Annette Alvarez-Peters

HOW MANY people do you know who are
truly exceptional? Someone who has it all
together, is international in scope, wears
many hats with an in-
credibly busy schedule
and excels at every
turn? My pick is Laura
Bodega Catena Zapata is one of Argen-
tina’s most prestigious wineries, consistently
producing award-winning wines. It all began
in 1902, when Catena’s great-grandfather
Nicola, an Italian immigrant, planted his first
vineyard. The wines were typical of the time,
Catena, owner and
president of Bodega
Catena Zapata winery
in Mendoza, Argentina.

Catena has an impressive list of responsibilities that keeps her moving at an exhaustive pace. Besides heading up the leading high-end winery in Argentina, she oversees several boutique wineries under the Catena family ownership. Impressed yet? She is also known as Dr. Catena, a practicing physician and professor at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center (having earned degrees from Harvard and Stanford).

MICHAEL FALCO

Catena is also a devoted wife and mother of three with a zest for life and a very down-to-earth demeanor. And just for fun, she’s an accomplished tango dancer. A definitive wine-industry role model, Catena has added author to her long list of credentials, releasing her first book, Vino Argentino ( www.vino argentino.com), this year.

Costco

Catena Alta Cabernet Sauvignon Item #959333 Catena Chardonnay Item #795128 Catena Malbec Item #472719 Nicolás Catena Zapata Item #276552 You’ll ;nd these ;ne Catena family wines at select Costcos:

Featured at Argentina wine regıon Brazil cheaply made in bulk for consistency rather than quality. It was Catena’s father, Nicolas, who had a vision to change the quality of wine produced in Argentina.

In the early 1980s, Nicolas was a visiting professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, running the family wine business from California. He spent time in the Napa Valley and was impressed by the wines there, particularly from the Robert Mondavi Winery. On his return to Mendoza, Nicolas vowed to produce wines as remarkable as those from the Napa Valley and Bordeaux.

The Catena family began a quest for quality, conducting extensive research in the vineyards and experimenting with a number of vineyard management and winemaking methods. Through much hard work and trial and error, Nicolas helped transform the fifth-largest wine-producing country into a world-class contender for quality wines.

“At the start, no one knew if
the wines would be good or
bad,” recalls Laura Catena. “We
wanted to be respected at the high end, pro-
vide extraordinary quality and value.”
I have vivid memories of the winery when
I first visited in 2008. A modern Mayan-
inspired building surrounded by manicured
vineyards, it is one of the most beautiful bode-
gas in the area. The grapes are estate grown
and the wines are made in a classic style.

The focus is on Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay wines: Catena Classic is a blend of single varietals from different vineyards, Catena Alta features great concentration and complexity, and Catena Zapata is their top-of-the-line, single-vineyard wines.

“Each wine project starts with passion
and commitment,” notes Catena. “We want
to show individual personalities on every
label produced. Personalities are made up of
regional differences, vineyard plots and dif-
ferent winemaking styles.”
Such diversity can be found in Luca, a
small artisanal winery created in 1999. The
goal was to work with old vines. Catena
tapped small family growers with fewer than
five acres each. She knew how special these
old-vine vineyards were and worked with
the families to create low-yield, high-
quality fruit.

Catena feels some of the best wines are a result of thinking outside the box, while maintaining balance between innovation and tradition. She says her father always encouraged her to follow her dreams, and I can’t wait for her next dream to come to fruition. I am sure it will be amazing, like everything else she does in life. Salud! C

Annette Alvarez-Peters oversees Costco’s wine, beer and spirits program.

TO FIND WHICH Costco warehouses carry wine, go to Costco.com, click on “Costco Connection Magazine,” then “Beer, Wine & Spirits Locator.” You can also find notes on Kirkland Signature™ wines under “Kirkland Signature Wine Connection.”