Mundus Bacillus Terrae Malbec, Adrianna Vineyard 2015

Catena Zapata

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Tasting Notes

Well-crafted and pure-tasting, with intense, mineral-infused flavors of raspberry, red currant and dried cherry, supported by fresh acidity. The lively finish reverberates with crushed stone and spice notes. Best from 2020 through 2025. Made by the influential Catena family, this wine is not the big, strapping style of Malbec that helped bring Argentina onto the world stage, but instead is a very refined version that is reflective of both its site and the diversity that Argentina can offer. The Adrianna Vineyard is one of the highest in Mendoza, at about 5,500 feet in elevation. The alluvial loamy soil is rich with limestone, which helps to promote the structure in the wine. It was barrel-fermented with native yeasts in a mix of 225-liter and 500-liter containers and then barrel-aged for 24 months.

Score: 95

Winespectator.com, Wine Spectator Maturity: 2020-2025 10 October 2019

(14.5% alcohol, with a pH of 3.4 and acidity of 7.2 grams per liter): Dark, bright ruby. Compellingly high-pitched and pure on the nose, offering scents of boysenberry, bitter chocolate, violet, crushed rock and juniper. Then wonderfully chewy and energetic, conveying outstanding inner-mouth rocky perfume and a distinct whole-cluster pungency to its flavors of boysenberry and bitter chocolate. Really extraordinary intensity without weight, like a top Vosne-Romanée. With its perfectly buffered tannins, great suavity and purity and inexorable slowly mounting finish, this wine struck me as a new dimension for Argentine Malbec.

Score: 96

Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com Maturity: 2023-2035 01 July 2018

From what many have called a Bordelais year, the 2015 Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae is slightly riper and a little lower in acidity, meaning it's more "civilized" than the previous and following vintages. All three years come from the same shallow soils that are rich in limestone and have a similar vinification and upbringing. These 2015s are more marked by the vintage than the other two, which seem to be more transparent to the terroir. This is my favorite of the 2015s. 4,800 bottles were filled in July 2017.

Score: 96

Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2018-2024 29 June 2018

This is a phenomenal malbec with intense blue fruits such as blueberries and blackberries. Black truffle, too. Full-bodied, bright and juicy with fantastic power and richness. Yet the acidity just keeps going. Volcanic salt and white peppers. A thoroughly breathtaking wine. Try after 2020.

Score: 98

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com Maturity: 2020+ 05 April 2018