2020 El Enemigo Chardonnay
EL ENEMIGO
$26.45
26.45 CAD- Argentina
- Mendoza
12 x 750
El Enemigo, “the enemy”. The struggle that most defines us in our lives is the one that we wage with our selves. We are all our own worst enemies. This is the credo behind the name on the label.
The wines of El Enemigo are enigmatic, charismatic, and verging on iconoclastic. In that way the wines reflect their maker, Alejandro Vigil, an almost Picasso-like personality. “Ale”, as he is known, is the head winemaker at the iconic Bodega Catena Zapata, but he has many loves. He consults, and contributes academic research on soils and microbial composition. With El Enemigo he plays and expresses himself creatively.
And yet the wines are also sensitive to historical blends, and the grapes come from some of the oldest vineyard sites of the region. That might be the influence of his business partner, Adrianna Catena, who recently graduated with a PhD in history from Oxford University.
Acclaim and recognition for these wines is accumulating at an exponential rate. Tim Atkin sums it up in his 2016 report, “You can rely on Ale Vigil to push the envelope of Argentinean winemaking.” The status quo and complacency are things to be vanquished.
The wines of El Enemigo are enigmatic, charismatic, and verging on iconoclastic. In that way the wines reflect their maker, Alejandro Vigil, an almost Picasso-like personality. “Ale”, as he is known, is the head winemaker at the iconic Bodega Catena Zapata, but he has many loves. He consults, and contributes academic research on soils and microbial composition. With El Enemigo he plays and expresses himself creatively.
And yet the wines are also sensitive to historical blends, and the grapes come from some of the oldest vineyard sites of the region. That might be the influence of his business partner, Adrianna Catena, who recently graduated with a PhD in history from Oxford University.
Acclaim and recognition for these wines is accumulating at an exponential rate. Tim Atkin sums it up in his 2016 report, “You can rely on Ale Vigil to push the envelope of Argentinean winemaking.” The status quo and complacency are things to be vanquished.
“Winemaker Alejandro Vigil has the word ‘Malbec’ tattooed on his arm – a small sign of the love he feels for Argentina’s flagship grape. However, based on his wine career, maybe the tattoo should read ‘Adrianna Vineyard’.
This mountainous site, located above 1,400m in the foothills of the Andes in Gualtallary, has been of fundamental importance in Vigil’s professional career – right from the first time he visited it in the mid-1990s, while working for the soil department of INTA, the National Institute of Agricultural Technology.
‘It was just planted, and I could not believe that someone had dared to plant there, on those stony soils, at that height,’ remembers Vigil.
It is the source of the Malbec and Cabernet Franc grapes used to produce Gran Enemigo, the top line of Bodega Aleanna, where Vigil is winemaker and partner. With these and other wines, Vigil has managed to extract, from a privileged vineyard, one of the most solid collections of wines in Argentina.”Patricio Tapia, September 2021