2015 Malbec Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae
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Tasting notes
The first vintage where the team started to use whole cluster fermentation (around 30%), and in return you feel a clearer grain to the tannins, and a mouthwatering elegance. A rainy fairly cool vintage with a corresponding punch of floral notes on the nose, and a gorgeous feel of joy and life, still with the blood, rust and earth of Malbec. Clear freshness, raspberry leaf and tobacco, and the fruits are elegant, juicy, controlled with the same striking energy as you feel in all these wines.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
From what many have called a Bordelais year, the 2015 Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae is slightly riper and a little lower in acidity, meaning it's more "civilized" than the previous and following vintages. All three years come from the same shallow soils that are rich in limestone and have a similar vinification and upbringing. These 2015s are more marked by the vintage than the other two, which seem to be more transparent to the terroir. This is my favorite of the 2015s. 4,800 bottles were filled in July 2017.
(14.5% alcohol, with a pH of 3.4 and acidity of 7.2 grams per liter): Dark, bright ruby. Compellingly high-pitched and pure on the nose, offering scents of boysenberry, bitter chocolate, violet, crushed rock and juniper. Then wonderfully chewy and energetic, conveying outstanding inner-mouth rocky perfume and a distinct whole-cluster pungency to its flavors of boysenberry and bitter chocolate. Really extraordinary intensity without weight, like a top Vosne-Romanée. With its perfectly buffered tannins, great suavity and purity and inexorable slowly mounting finish, this wine struck me as a new dimension for Argentine Malbec.
About the producer
Bodega Catena Zapata has been instrumental both in the development of fine wine production in Argentina and in realising the full potential of the Malbec grape.