2016 Bodega Catena Zapata Malbec River Stones Adrianna Vineyard

Saturated bright ruby. Aromas of blackberry, cassis and bitter chocolate are lifted by pungent wild thyme and crushed rock. Densely packed and hugely concentrated but much less expressive today than the 2016 Fortuna Terrae, with powerful chalky minerality giving definition and a sensation of weightlessness to the middle palate. Penetrating acidity (7 grams per liter) contributes to the wine's low-fat impression. Quite dry and youthfully forbidding today, this Malbec finishes with a very firm tannic spine and superb grip.

Like the other Malbecs from Adrianna Vineyard, the 2016 Adrianna Vineyard River Stones was bottled a little earlier, and the time in oak was shortened. It was a most unusual year that was cold and rainy and allowed for no irrigation. This has good ripeness and sharp acidity, making it powerful but extremely fresh, with a backbone of acidity that lifts the wine up and makes it extremely long and persistent. In fact, the wine blows me away with an unusual combination of power and elegance; it shows detailed and nuanced, with subtle aromas of violets, spices, tobacco and wet chalk. It has a velvety texture with ultra refined, fine-grained tannins. It is precise in the acidity and on the palate, with the textbook chalky tannins and a sapid, almost salty finish. This is serious, austere, mineral, long, compact, harmonious and concentrated, yet it feels light and has that somewhat contradictory powerful elegance. This has to be the best wine ever produced at Catena. I'd love to have a time machine and taste this wine in 20 years' time... There are some 3,800 bottles of this.