Nose
The nose shows an excellent mixture of citrus fruit interwoven with honeyed tropical fruit notes and floral tones.
Palate
The mouthfeel is rich and concentrated showing ripe pear, apple and apricot flavors with a light note of sweet nutmeg spice. The finish shows bright, cleand acidity and wonderful length.
Growing Conditions
The 2006 growing season began with the winter months of June, July and August 2005. Mendoza experienced significant snowfall during these months, much higher than normal, especially in the heights of the Andes. There was even light snowfall in some of the lower lying areas. This increased snowfall resulted in an important recovery of the Andean glaciers, resulting in a plentiful water supply for not only the 2006 growing season, but for several years to come.
Spring arrived to Mendoza with slightly higher than normal temperatures. This meant that there was little risk of late frosts to endanger the initiation of the vegetative cycle. These slightly elevated temperatures resulted in a healthy bud break and excellent vegetative development of the canopy. In preparation for a very productive year, the Catena family vineyards that are used for Alamos and the Bodega Catena Zapata vineyards (Catena, Catena Alta and Nicolas Catena Zapata) underwent aggressive fruit thinning in the months of December and early January to an overall average of 50% yield reduction.
The Summer months of December 2005 and January & February 2006 continued the trend of warmer temperatures. These conditions were accompanied by higher than usual levels of relative humidity, helping the vines to cope with the higher temperatures and ensuring that there was little or no sunburn on the grapes. Additionally, because of the humidity, night-time temperatures were lower than expected, creating a pronounced night-day temperature differential. This fact led to nice and slow ripening conditions in the Malbecs of the Angelica (3,018 feet elevation, Lunlunta) and Adrianna (4,757 feet elevation, Gualtallary Tupungato) vineyards. The Angelica Malbec was harvested in late March, and the Adrianna vineyard was harvested from late March into mid April.
On December 27th there was a large hail storm in Mendoza which mainly affected the areas of Vistalba and Perdriel. In many areas of Vistalba the damage was as high as 100% loss, while the area of Perdriel experienced more scattered affects depending upon vineyard location. There was also another severe storm, although less intense than the December incident, in the first week of March in the eastern areas of Medrano and the central eastern region. Fortunately neither of these storms damaged the Bodega Catena Zapata vineyards.
Harvest
In general, the months of February and March (March particularly) have been characterized by very low precipitation. This has resulted in very healthy grapes across all varietals. At this point all white grapes have been harvested, with excellent quality levels. The Chardonnays, which were harvested throughout the last two weeks of February, are extraordinary.
