Pierre-Antoine Rovani's Wine Personalities of the Year
Dr. Nicolas Catena-Zapata, Mendoza, Argentina - Dr. Catena (a Ph.D. in Economics), the owner of Bodegas Catena Zapata, a century-old winery in Argentina's Mendoza Valley, is responsible for producing numerous awe-inspiring wines. Yet what sets him apart from other top producers in the world is his unflagging dedication to researching, studying, and learning every aspect of viticulture and winemaking that could potentially improve his wines. Catena constantly has projects underway from clonal trials, altitude experiments, to studies of the effect of the sun's radiation on ripeness. His scientific studies of the effects of heat, drought, and relative humidity on vines and their ability to fully ripen fruit have been eye-opening for me as well as others. Though he was thousands of miles away, Catena's work provided a better explanation for what transpired in the vineyards of Europe during the scorching summer of 2003 than any European was capable of offering.
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