Wine science at the foot of the Andes

Hi all,

I haven’t posted for awhile, but I just finished a long profile of the Argentine winery Catena Zapata, and how they’re using science to hunt for world-class terroir. Would love to hear the board’s thoughts–including polite constructive criticism. :slight_smile:

Well, I for one thought that was terrific, thanks so much!

On a related note, I have one lone bottle of Caro 2000, any thoughts on its future?

Thanks again

I haven’t had nearly as much Caro as CZ. But based on my CZ tasting, that’s probably pretty close to peak maturity. No idea about vintage specific characteristics.

Thanks again, sounds good to me.

Great article. I may be inclined to drink CZ again, it’s been many years.

Fabulous article. Ms.Catena sounds like a super high achiever.

I will confess that I’ve always wondered who exactly is buying these $100 South American wines?

She’s certainly a smart lady but I’m not sure I agree with the premise of the article. If they were upset that Lurton didn’t think the wine reminded him of Bordeaux, they have only to realize that the regions are vastly different - Mendoza is up in the clouds, Bordeaux is at sea level with fog and rain, and their latitudes are different.

There is a lot of work going on in Argentina at different places - Mendoza is not the only place for grapes and as you move further south you don’t need the same elevation. There are certainly places in Argentina where you can make great wine.

But what is wrong with the uniqueness of Mendoza? And Mendoza is a big place anyway with very different elevations, although all much higher than anything in Bordeaux. A lot of the big, plush, jammy style we associate with Mendoza Malbec comes from wine making decisions as much as anything else. That sells.

I think it’s kind of tragic that they’re planting Pinot Noir. Malbec gets them a chance to be distinguished. Pinot Noir won’t. They’ll have the same problem a friend in Hungary had with the Chardonnay that he ripped out. It was great. But he said when he first tried to sell it in England, they said it wasn’t as good as Burgundy. When it was as good, they said there was no need to pay so much for it when they could just buy Burgundy.

The research Catena is doing is great. But I wouldn’t aim for a model that has nothing to do with the region and the resources at hand.

That’s a very well written and interesting article Dan.

I think her focus on soil is “on the right track”. That said, I do wonder how capable Malbec is at expressing terroir (which might explain the Pinot planting…).

I know Malbec was a Bordeaux grape back in the day. Why didn’t it shake out?

http://www.academia.edu/868710/Fingerprints_for_Main_Varieties_of_Argentinean_Wines_Terroir_Differentiation_by_Inorganic_Organic_and_Stable_Isotopic_Analyses_Coupled_to_Chemometrics

Prone to disease and infection and makes tannic and bitter wine when grown down at sea level in a humid environment.

That said, I do wonder how capable Malbec is at expressing terroir (which might explain the Pinot planting…).

Kevin - why? Pinot Noir always tastes like Pinot Noir, wherever it’s grown. Cabernet Sauvignon always tastes like Cabernet Sauvignon, wherever it’s grown. Ditto Riesling, Muscat, and several other grapes. They can taste different when they come from different vineyards, but they always taste like themselves. Why can’t a grape express terroir by being drastically different in different environments? The Malbec grown in Salta is very different from the Malbec grown in Luján de Cuyo.

Greg,
I think some grapes reflect their soil origins more than others. For example Pinot Noir and Chardonnay can produce wines that taste quite different across fairly minor soil differences while a grape like Petite Sirah does not (IMO). Likewise, I think some grapes are prone to give very different expressions across relatively small differences in climate. I think Syrah is a great example of this. Cool climate Syrah (meat, game, olives) bears little resemblance to warm climate Syrah (blue fruit).
I have tasted a reasonable range of Malbec while touring Argentina and while I saw what I considered some climate-driven variation of expression, I did not see much soil driven difference. The Achaval Ferrer lineup showed the most soil driven character but I didn’t see that broad of a range of expression. Of course I realize that my experience is not comprehensive or definitive but it does leave me wondering if Malbec is capable of expressing a broad range of soil driven characteristics.

Dan - I read your story on a plane a couple of weeks ago and had meant to drop you a line. It was a very interesting read. I found their research fascinating, and I thought you wove the family story in well. And it wasn’t too fawning, which is always the danger with that kind of feature. Nice work – and a great junket, I’m sure!

Arv R–Anyone who’s buying wine off of wine magazine points will think that $100 for a 95-98 pointer is a pretty good deal. And if you like the fruit-and-oak-bomb style, I think South America probably offers a better QPR than most of the high-octane wines coming out of California. I’ve been known to part with $50-$75 happily for a Cheval des Andes or Almaviva–sometimes I’m just in the mood for something polished, rich, and yummy.

The Lurton meeting took place in 1992, GregT. At the time, absolutely no one would have given a thought to the notion that Argentina could have some unique terroir worth expressing. CZ has conducted experimental plantings at a wide range of altitude-latitude pairs in Argentina. I believe they’ve found that frosts are too much of a problem in the south (though clearly there are plenty of successful producers in Río Negro), and that in Salta it’s too hot in the valleys and the sun is too strong higher up.

Laura is 110% devoted to Malbec–she sees herself as an evangelist for the grape as well as for Argentina. Both CZ’s production and the institute’s research are overwhelmingly focused on Malbec (e.g. Buscema’s paper). I chose to close my piece with her private Pinot Noir vineyard because it happened to be the wine I found most distinctive and promising (though not most delicious–that was the 1997 Catena Alta). But PN is, at least at this stage, a minor sideshow for them. As I noted, the wine isn’t even being produced by CZ itself (I think it will go out under the Luca label).

Kevin–I believe that at a formal scientific level, Malbec certainly does capture soil-level distinctions, since Buscema’s model can correctly identify the origin of Malbecs it hasn’t seen before based on chemical analysis (though to be fair I believe this is done at the appellation rather than vineyard level). And although many of the compounds whose concentrations it measures are indeed perceptible to humans, I don’t know whether the trained sensory panel of tasters he assembled for the analysis could have ID’ed Argentine Malbec appellations blind.

Thanks very much, John. Yeah, I think there are two systematic problems with some of the articles you’d read in this genre. The first is misaligned incentives–who wants to read a long story about a region that has never made great wine and still isn’t? The author is almost required to exaggerate the progress in order to hold the audience’s attention. The other is that they’re either written by wine critics, whose focus is mainly on tasting notes and write for a very narrow audience, or by generalist/maybe-travel-luxury journalists who just don’t know enough about wine to offer a credible assessment.

Dan great article. I helped run a business in Argentina from 2000 - 2013. Met Laura several times during my visits to Mendoza. I recently served blind a 97 Estibada Reservada cab (poncho wine) to several very experienced tasters from the DC wino group that I taste with. Several guesses were Lafite. The wine was very well received.

I think that there are several producers in Argentina that are making great wine. Laura Catena is one of them and she is an amazing women!

Hi Dan,

excellent article …
Somewhere buried in the several terabytes of information that I have studied… I have the conclusion that it’s the bacteria from the soil that gets fermented along with the grapes that defines sense of place wine ‘terroir’ more so than anything else in my opinion … they want BDX import some dirt from the vineyard and cultivate the bacteria … this after 20 + year is the conclusion I have come up with… this will be the next step in winemaking …


“These patterns could explain “why Malbec from Argentina tastes different from Malbec from California,” Mills said, “and why Chardonnay from a vineyard in Carneros tastes different from one in Russian River Valley.”




Click On Me


A Chemical Explanation for Terroir?
A new study could explain why wines from neighboring vineyards can be so different

isolated thousands of specific bacteria, yeasts and other microflora from 40 individual vineyards before and after fermentation at Far Nientewinery in Napa Valley in 2011. Two big takeaways: First, the patterns in which these occurred were distinct to each site. And, after analyzing all the data, they could predict the finished wines’ patterns of metabolites (bacteria and other substances formed by fermentations) with 80 percent accuracy.
An earlier U.C. Davis study had identified patterns of bacteria from one viticultural area to another that could explain chemically “why there’s such a thing as regionality,” said one of the study’s authors, David Mills of the U.C. Davis Department of Food Science and Technology.

Shalom !!!

Salute !!!

No doubt. As I noted in the story, the CIW is extremely focused on the microbiome–taking soil samples; isolating, plating, and cultivating all the bacteria they can; and then adding those microbes one by one under lab conditions against a control group to determine their effects.

Here’s a good study piece:

"Determination of the Geographical Origin of Wines by Means of the Mineral Content and the Stable Isotope Ratios: A Review"

Mario Giacco, Assia Vicentini

"The classification of wines by their geographical origins is an argument of significant interest both for the producer and for the consumer: various analytical and statistical systems have been proposed for identifying their zones of production, also because the factor “origin” has a considerable importance correlated to the quality of these products.

"The mineral element content and the stable isotope ratios have been shown to be useful in the determination of the geographical origin of wines; in the majority of cases through statistical multivariate elaboration of data a discrimination of 100% has been obtained.

"The number and the types of elements sufficient to discriminate the production areas varies in function of the origin zone and the vines. From this point of view the greater the number of dosed elements, the more elevated the probability of obtaining discriminations close to 100%. An optimal discrimination has
often been obtained introducing the analysis of Lithium and Rubidium, probably because such elements don’t suffer the influence of technological processing.

"Moreover from the studies realized it can be deduced that while the metal content is able to differentiate with great accuracy wines according to the geographical origin, the stable isotope ratios is a useful indicator to differentiate, above all, the year of production.

“In general the introduction of analytical and statistically evolved techniques also satifies the demand from consumers, who and more are asking for alimentary products of certified quality and that are safe from the point of view of hygene and health.”

Determination_Wine_Origin_Italy.pdf (194 KB)

Interesting. This doesn’t appear to have any connection to the qualities of the wine, though – just where their fruit originated. Kind of like tests for radiactive isotopes, which helped to prove that some of Hardy Rodenstock’s fakes were post-1945.

(Long time lurker, first time poster here)

It’s a happy coincidence, but less than a day after reading this article, I learned that Ms. Catena will be hosting the Charlotte Wine and Food Weekend kickoff dinner here in Charlotte on Thursday, January 19th. I’ve got my tickets and look forward to meeting with any Charlotte-based Berserkers … great excuse to get the lapel pin!