In the “News Front” section of the magazine, the editors report on the recent launch of D.V. Catena Tinto Histórico (with bottle shot):
NEW CATENA WINE HONORS PAST
“MundoVino, a division of The Winebow Group, has released D.V. Catena Tinto Histórico as part of the Catena wines’ portfolio. Domingo Vicente Catena, better known as Don Domingo, was also the father of Nicolás Catena Zapata, who revolutionized Argentine winemaking in the 1990s with a focus on high altitude viticulture and vineyard research, efforts that continue today with his daughter, Dr. Laura Catena.
Domingo’s Tinto Buenos Aires was made from a blend of grapes from old vines in Maipú and fruit grown in La Consulta in the southern Uco Valley, the site of Catena’s present Nicasia vineyard. D.V. Catena Tinto Histórico is made from 92% Malbec and 8% Petit Verdot, a combination that is similar to the original Tinto Buenos Aires blend. The first vintage is 2014; SRP $21.00.”
— Beverage Media, May 2017

“Bodega Catena Zapata already boasts a roster of some of the finest malbec wines fashioned in Argentina, I wonder why it was necessary to add another rendition to the line-up. Still, the D.V. Catena Tinto Historico 2014, Mendoza, honors Don Domingo Vicente Catena — father and grandfather of the present owners, Nicolas Catena Zapata and his daughter Laura Catena — as a replica of the wine that Domingo Vicente made in the 1930s and sold in the bistros of Buenas Aires. Made by Laura Catena and chief winemaker Alejandro Vigil, the wine aged 12 to 14 months in a combination of French and American oak barrels, first-, second- and third-pass, followed by 10 months in bottle. If you can call this beckoning abyss a color, it’s opaque black-purple with a glowing magenta rim; warm and slightly woody aromas of spiced and macerated black currants, cherries and plums open to an intense core of lavender, iodine, graphite and bittersweet chocolate. Dense and velvety on the palate, this 92 percent malbec wine (with 8 percent petit verdot) delivers tasty black fruit flavors enlivened by vivid acidity and a scintillating lithic character. The texture is sleek and supple; the wine deepens with moderate tannins of a briery-brambly nature; a few minutes add the subtly resinous quality of freshly cut rosemary; tar and wood-smoke define a lithe, balanced finish. 14 percent alcohol. A wine that gathers depth, dimension and austerity as the moments pass. Supremely appropriate with burgers and steaks, hearty pizzas and pasta dishes or grilled pork chops with a chili-cumin rub and clearly superior to the average ‘bistro’ wine. Now through 2020 to ’24. Excellent. About $21.”
— Fredric Koeppel, Jun 2017