Winemaker Notes
This Cabernet Franc is ruby red in color with soft violet tones. The nose has intense aromas and concentrated notes of cassis, ripe currants, and sweet spices including black pepper and cloves. His tenure provides integrated oak notes of cedar and vanilla. Fresh impact and excellent structure on the palate, reminiscent of ripe red fruits with hints of eucalyptus and tagged black pepper. This wine has an excellent balance and elegance with a well-structured, persistent finish.
Pair this Cabernet Franc with grilled game meats, smoky barbecue, rich lentil stew, herb roasted pork, or eggplant parmesan.
Blend: 90% Cabernet Franc, 10% Malbec
Jeb Dunnuck 95 points
Wine Advocate 93 points
About El Enemigo
Two romantics, a winemaker (Alejandro Vigil), and a historian (Adrianna Catena) – go back in time to capture an era when European imigrants recently settled in Argentina, sought to make wines as fine, and finer than those of their homelands.
London, September 18, 2009 – Alejandro Vigil and Adrianna Catena walked back from the Argentine Embassy in London where Nicolas Catena had just received the Decanter Man of the Year Award among a group of dear friends from around the world. The Thames was covered in mist as Adrianna began to tell Alejandro about the Great Fire of 1666, stories from another September night in London.
Adrianna is an historian who recently completed her Ph.D. in History at Oxford University. Alejandro, a soils engineer, has been chief winemaker at Catena Zapata since 2002. They share a mutual fascination with the writers Dostoyevsky and Cortázar, a passion for the Hellenic Philosophers (and heirloom tomatoes), a love of used books, live music, and long meals with old friends, and a deep, obsessive dedication to their young families – Adrianna’s son Antonio and Alejandro’s daughter Maria Giuliana Francesca are the same age.
On that walk, Alejandro and Adrianna decided to make a wine together, a wine that would represent their deep respect for history and tradition, and their complete irreverence towards the status quo.
