¡Viva la Argentina!

As Wine Advocate says, “at this quality level, the price seems too good to be true.”

And they are not talking about OUR price you see here. So, we say, SCORE! Not one, not two, but three features this week from Messi’s motherland…

To be honest, lazy me says just drop the 99 points for 89 dollars and run. But I must write the story here, it’s too compelling not to share.

You must know who the Catenas are. Well, El Enemigo is them joining forces with one of the most gifted winemakers the Southern hemisphere has ever seen. The project skyrocketed when Wine Advocate awarded THIS WINE with 100 points: “The joint venture between Catena’s winemaker Alejandro Vigil, and Dr. Catena’s younger daughter, Adrianna, has produced a perfect wine in 2013. They are without a doubt one of the leading names in the whole of Argentina.” They wrote and made history. It has since been impossible to get, let alone see enough in the same place to make a day out of… until today!

How can it be best described? Let’s not reinvent the wheel and stick with a cliché. It’s the definition of an iron fist in a velvet glove. The kind of wine that you sniff and sip again and again in utter disbelief. The fruit is forward and plush, the acidity keeps it remarkably fresh, while the intensity and complexity blow through the roof, all that, while maintaining an ethereal texture that makes it impossible to stop sipping.

Leaving it to the Wine Advocate to stress how tremendous a deal this is; “Alejandro Vigil continues producing amazing wines under El Enemigo, including some of the best Cabernet Franc produced in Argentina. These wines seem to have created some kind of hype around the variety, but Vigil’s wines are not about the variety at all; they are about the very special places where the grapes are grown…

What do you say, will it last a while? We hope so!

99 Points – Wine Advocate “A collaboration between Catena’s winemaking director, Alejandro Vigil, and Adrianna Catena, El Enemigo is among a select handful of reference-point producers in Argentina. The portfolio focuses on the Uco Valley with inclusions spanning Luján de Cuyo, Maipú, and eastern Mendoza, each region containing reference-point bottlings rendered with unwavering clarity. The superb Gran Enemigo range contains a transcendent expression of Torrontés and a beautiful red blend, culminating in a centerpiece quartet of single-vineyard Cabernet Francs. I found these firmly among Argentina’s most exciting wines, cementing the variety’s rightful place alongside Malbec as a vehicle for expressing the Uco Valley. As difficult as it is to pick a winner between the Gualtallary and El Cepillo bottlings, the 2021 Gran Enemigo Gualtallary Single Vineyard gets my nod as the supreme example of the Gran Enemigo Single Vineyard Cabernet Francs. It hails from a plot planted on calcareous rocky soils in 1995 with 10,000 vines per hectare, fermented with 40% whole bunches in barrique and underwent a 15-month élevage in 100-year-old foudre. Opening with a brooding, inward and quietly perfumed nose, its aromatic profile ceaselessly expands to encompass all manner of herbal and floral complexity, combining simmering intensity with supreme elegance. The palate follows suit with a rich, silky, refined and gently succulent energy, releasing into a graceful, dense and glacial conclusion that gives equal measure to vertical energy and horizontal richness. The finish slowly but steadily builds upon itself, revealing shimmering acidity and ultra-refined tannins with increased aeration. There is no better example of Cabernet Franc’s suitability in the Uco Valley, a match rendered here with incomparable finesse, depth and complexity. Drink 2024-2041.”