June 13, 2023 - Deep gold in color. Ripe yellow apple, lemon curd, key lime on the nose. There are sweet herbal smells as well: spearmint, thai basil, and icing sugar. A hint of butterscotch on the back as the wine takes on air. Medium plus in the mouth, medium minus on acidity, a supple round texture. Flavors are rich lemon, ripe pineapple, clementine oranges, along with that minty note again and just a hint of those nutty caramel-y flavors that come with age. The finish is long, complex, very pleasing.
Half the bottle held up very well for day 2, perhaps even freshening up a little bit. The flavors clearly show that the wine has a little age, but it is taking the years in stride and there is no sign that it will be declining any time soon.
Despite its being grown on a vineyard full of calcareous marine fossils (hence "White Bones"), there is not a strong mineral component. I kind of expected a Chablis type wine, instead I got a big rich Cote de Beaune: maybe a Meursault. But a really nice wine nonetheless. Crazy to think that this comes from super high elevations vineyards half a world away.
April 18, 2022 - Deep yellow to gold. A beautiful colour. Suprising amounts of lemon on the palate. Good acidity. Maybe not as much minerals as I hoped. For an Argentinian wine, this is stunning. Easily the best I have tried. Unfairly comparing this to burgundy, and it's probably decent 1er Cru level.
January 5, 2021 - Deep yellow/amber colour. Nose very developed showing butterscotch and some yellow fruit. In the mouth high acidity and not much more. Short and a bit hollow. Past it’s peak.
July 3, 2020 - Deep yellow color, mineral, tropical notes. I was expecting more.
February 19, 2020 - Blind, lemons, herbe de provence, acid, some acid and more acid, just not my style, burning throat going down. Drink now.
November 22, 2019 - not it's best showing
July 22, 2018 - A stunning wine. Left 1 hour open in bottle to breath before pouring. The nose is just incredible. If you ever want to know what minerality smells like get this wine. It is like smelling a wet rock. Also very present like the 2013 a big smell of flint and menthol. A smell you unlikely to forget . I can pick this wine blind anytime now. In the mouth the wine has high acidity, mineral, citrusy, more menthol, flintstone. Very long aftertaste. I had the 2013 not so long ago this was more complex. These wines need time to age. won't drink my other 2013 until at least 2 years from now.
April 18, 2018 - Excellent minerality, very deep color, good length.
April 21, 2017 - By coravin at Central, Lima.
Quite a bit of colour here with a greenish tint. Light on the oak at this stage and more of a floral/herbaceous side, citrus fruits. Green fruits. Good palate presence , more of a mineral attempt than a full on fatty Chardonnay that we expected and with good balance. Lack a bit of depth and complexity of we are to be critical of it. 89
April 15, 2017 - I really love the two top line Chardonnays from Catena. Over the years I have found these wines combine the best of Argentina and Catena with influences from the best Chablis found on earth.
This however, turned into quite another story. I first opened one bottle from one OWC. The nose was magnificent, but perhaps slightly muted. The palate however was awkwardly acidic and one-dimensional. The layers of stony minerals, subtle citrus tones and the classical colza was totally absent.
I then opened another bottle from the same OWC which behaved in the same way. I went on to another OWC, they come 3 btls per OWC, and this bottle was exactly the same!
Something has gone very wrong with these bottles but I cannot say exactly what, neither can Catena or a couple of other wine aficionados I have consulted with. At first it is easy to think of TCA, because of the slightly muted nose, but I sealed all three bottles with Argon gas and I have tasted them every day from the 15 April until 26 April. There is no development of the musty smells emanating from TCA. It could be that the wines are corked to 0.5 % or similar, but would that happen to three bottles from two OWCs?
I certainly do not want you to refrain from buying these wines, on the contrary Catena has been very good and agreed to buy back all twelve bottles through their local importer without questions asked. (edit: I received an e-mail from Catena saying they will compensate me with a few bottles from the latest vintage. Cannot ask for a better customer service. This is top class.)
I also popped a 012 White Stones to compare with and that wine behaved exactly as normal. You can read the TN on that to see what these wines should be like.