{"id":436,"date":"2015-10-11T23:56:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T23:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/?p=436"},"modified":"2015-11-10T03:07:17","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T03:07:17","slug":"can-we-just-talk-about-catena-for-a-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/?p=436","title":{"rendered":"Can we just talk about Catena for a minute?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_2958\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\"4 (4 \/ 5)\n

Catena Malbec 2012<\/p>\n

I mean, regular Catena.\u00a0Not Catena Alta or Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino or Angelica Zapata or Nicolas Catena Zapata or the other more exotic wines I tend to\u00a0wax poetically about.<\/p>\n

Good old Catena Malbec. The one that is probably on your supermarket shelf for $22. (Unless you’re at Whole Foods Market where it will be a silly $26). The same\u00a0Catena that you can get for $17 at Costco if you remember to pick some up.<\/p>\n

The story has already been far better told by others<\/a> of how Nicolas Catena transformed Argentine winemaking, so I won’t repeat that here.<\/p>\n

I feel like my job on this blog is to make you look beyond the obvious choices. But seriously, if you find this for under $20, Catena Malbec IS the obvious choice. I just opened a bottle, at the proper temperature, used an aerator, and holy crap, this stuff is good. Not just acceptable, but delicious.<\/p>\n

I’ve read columns from Luis Gutierrez and other wine experts who say Catena continues to make their whole line better and better. And tonight’s bottle reminds me this is true.<\/p>\n

Yes, they have an empire. Yes, they even collaborate with Gallo on a high-distribution wine now.\u00a0Yes, they have alliances with Rothschild and others. But you have to give credit to a company that despite growth, hasn’t taken their eye off the ball.<\/p>\n

To me, Houston’s (maybe Hillstone in your city) is the most reliable, high-quality restaurant chain you can walk into. Everything is going to be good, every time, whether you’re in Atlanta, New York, Boston, or Santa Monica. You just know it’s going to be delicious. And that confidence, adds value. Well, Catena just might be the Houston’s of wine makers.\u00a0And that is a compliment in my book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Catena Malbec 2012 I mean, regular Catena.\u00a0Not Catena Alta or Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino or Angelica Zapata or Nicolas Catena Zapata or the other more exotic wines I tend to\u00a0wax poetically about. Good old Catena Malbec. The one that is probably on your supermarket shelf for $22. (Unless you’re at Whole Foods Market where … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Can we just talk about Catena for a minute?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paRcNu-72","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":579,"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drinkingargentina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}