2019 El Enemigo "Gualtallary" Cabernet Franc, Mendoza, Argentina

ABOUT THIS WINE

Fermentation in barrel, average temperature: 23°C / 73.4°F. Cold maceration for 4 days. Average maceration 26 days. 40% whole bunch. French oak barrels 2nd and 3rd use. Five different harvest times (1.5 months between the first and the last). 15 months in 100-year-old foudre.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Adrianna grew up in Buenos Aires and later moved to California, graduating from UC Berkeley with highest honors and the Departmental Citation in History. She holds a Master’s and PhD from the University of Oxford, and has been awarded prestigious fellowships by the Clarendon Fund, Balliol College, and the Leverhulme Trust. As an historian, Adrianna specializes in the Early Modern Iberian Atlantic – the histories of trade, consumption, and material culture – from the Renaissance to 1800. Her research has focused on the textile sector, with an emphasis on dyes and dyers, the circulation of artisanal practices, knowledge, and expertise.

The youngest daughter of Nicolás Catena Zapata, she has lived and breathed wine since childhood. Today, Adrianna blends her experience in Academia with her passion for Viticulture and Winemaking, dividing her time between El Enemigo Wines and Catena Zapata. She lives between London and Mendoza, Argentina with her husband and two sons.

Alejandro Vigil was the “enfant terrible” of his family. He left school at the age of 14 to join a wine cooperative but chose to continue studying at night so as not to upset his mother. He graduated top of his class in agricultural engineering and, at 27, became head of the soils division for the National Research Institute (INTA).

Alejandro has been Chief Winemaker of Bodega Catena Zapata since 2002, receiving the first 100 point score awarded to a South American wine by Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate (CZ River Stones 2016), and the highest rating ever given to a pure Cabernet Franc (Gran Enemigo Gualtallary 2013). He also holds the first 100pt. score for an Argentine Chardonnay from James Suckling (CZ White Bones 2018).

Alejandro lives with his wife and children in what he likes to call The Republic of Chachingo: a rural village in Mendoza where neighbors make wine together and farm the land collectively.