ARGENTINA
This Franco-Argentinian partnership between two highly renowned winemaking families was founded in 1999. Today, the Mendoza winery is led by the talented daughters of the two men who founded it, and a definitive step is being taken towards the creation of an Argentinian grand cru
To understand the origins of CARO, the flagship wine of producer Bodegas CARO in Mendoza, we must go back to the previous century, when Argentina was just beginning to emerge onto the global wine scene. Nicolás Catena, the head of Catena Zapata, was leading a local viticultural revolution when he happened to cross paths with Baron Eric de Rothschild, the president of Château Lafite and Domaines Barons de Rothschild (DBR), marking the beginning of a relationship that would merge two winemaking dynasties.
The Baron was familiar with South America through his winery Viña Los Vascos in Chile but knew very little about Argentinian wines. However, he soon became fascinated with the high-altitude terroirs and century-old vineyards that Mendoza had to offer. After several tastings of Catena Zapata wines and visits to Mendoza, a joint venture was conceived.
The partnership was officially formed in 1999 and by the following year, the first CARO – the name is a combination of the first two letters of both partners’ surnames – wines were being bottled. ‘The idea was to make the best Bordeaux-inspired wine in Argentina, uniting two cultures and varieties, taking advantage of Rothschild’s famous expertise with Cabernet Sauvignon and our family’s speciality, Malbec,’ says Laura Catena, daughter of Nicolás. The managing director at Bodega Catena Zapata since 2012, she is now in charge of Bodegas CARO alongside Eric’s daughter, Saskia de Rothschild.
The challenge was to produce great wines using grapes from old Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon vines in Las Compuertas, Vistalba and Agrelo in the department of Luján de Cuyo, as well as La Consulta, Altamira and Gualtallary, Uco Valley. The Catena family shared its experience with Malbec and the high-altitude terroirs in Mendoza, while the team led by Eric contributed its savoir-faire with blending and barrel ageing, using its own Bordeaux cooperage, as well as its decades of experience with Cabernet Sauvignon. However, the journey to winemaking greatness still had some way to go before it was to fulfil Nicolás and Eric’s vision for an authentic grand cru.
Saskia continues the story: ‘CARO was created by a pair of very strong personalities, two men of imagination and intuition, and when that
