In the mid-1990s, Catena began exploring the Uco Valley and interpreting it through malbec. To do this, they used massal selections from its historic Angélica Vineyard, planted in the 1920s on the alluvial terraces of the Mendoza River. Nicasia, in Altamira, comes from that selection and this is their most ambitious wine, which is, in turn, another even more specific selection from certain rows of Lot 1, which yields the most concentrated fruit for a wine of the stature that Nicasia aims for. You'll need to be patient here. In the beginning, it's just a compact block of ripe fruit, but it slowly opens toward notes of flowers and spices that finally evolve into an irresistible nose. The palate is firm in tannins, but with that sweetness of the malbec that makes it very approachable, leaving a juicy sensation. A wine for a long period in the cellar.
January 2022