Adrianna Vineyard

The Adrianna vineyard, planted at almost 5,000’ elevation in the Andes foothills, lies on the westernmost border of Tupungato Alto, Mendoza, Argentina, in a small district called Gualtallary.^[1][2][3][4] It belongs to the Bodega Catena Zapata.^[5] Being the highest vineyard in Mendoza, it benefits from the cooling effect ^[1][6][7] of the Andes Mountains and intense sunlight ^[8][9] resulting from extreme high altitude.^[6] The increased sunlight intensity due to altitude translates into thicker grape skins, because the grapevine attempts to protect its seeds from the sun.^[1] Grape skins are rich in tannins and polyphenols, the flavour-giving compounds in wine, explaining why the Adrianna Vineyard's high-altitude wines are so concentrated and capable of ageing.^[1][7] Also, because of the cool mountain climate, the wines from Adrianna have a certain type of minerality ^[4][10][11] in the aromatics and palate that is not found in wines from other parts of Mendoza. The soils ^[4][12] of Catena Zapata´s Adrianna Vineyard are composed of limestone and large pebbles that make them particularly well drained; the yields are naturally low and berries are small and concentrated^[1] Adrianna is possibly the world’s most studied vineyard.^{[2][5][13][14]} The Adrianna Vineyard is well known for its single parcel Chardonnay wines White Bones and White Stones.^[4][12] and its Malbec, which have been highly reviewed by world wine publications ^[3][7][15]

Adrianna Vineyard

Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate awarded a perfect 100-point score to the 2016 vintage of River Stones Malbec.^[16]

References

1. Catena, Laura (September 2010). Vino Argentino, An Insiders Guide to the Wines and Wine Country of Argentina. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-7330-7.
2. Wine trials: The Most In-depth Study of Cultivars Ever Attempted. The Future of Wine Science., "Wine Business Monthly, by Lance Cutler", November, 2015.
3. Saving Malbec, Saveur Magazine, December, 2015.
4. To move beyond Malbec, look below the surface, The New York Times, by Eric Asimov, February, 2016.
5. Goode, Jamie (2015). Catena Institute of Wine, The Science of Argentine Wine, page 31. Blurb. ISBN 978-1-32-051522-1.
6. Malbec from Argentina, 45 wines tried, Wineanorak, 2006
7. The Story of the Adrianna Vineyard, Huffington Post, September, 2015.
8. Visiting Mendoza, Argentina - A question of Altitude, Wineanorak, 2008
9. Argentina gets more polish, Jancis Robinson, Octubre, 2008
10. International Wine Cellar, Stephen Tanzer Wine Mdq, March 2014
11. International Wine Cellar, Stephen Tanzer 2016-04-02 at the Wayback Machine Wine Access, March 2013
12. White Stones and White Bones: terroir-based Chardonnays from Catena Jamie Goode's Wine Blog, November 2014
13. High Hopes in the Andes, The Economist 1843, December,January 2017.
14. Laura Catena: the quest to find Argentina’s winemaking potential, The Buyer April 24, 2017.
15. Los vinos argentinos mejor puntuados en RobertParker.com La Nación, August 2015
16. Two Wines from Catena’s Adrianna Vineyard are First South American Wines Awarded 100 Points from Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate PR Web, July 2018