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Laura Catena interview Part Four 12-6-2023
Dr. Laura Catena, managing director of Bodega Catena Zapata, is considered the face of Argentine wine.
She is an amazing woman— magna cum laude Harvard grad with a medical degree from Stanford. She practiced medicine for 25 years while helping run the family winery with her father, Dr. Nicolás Catena Zapata, who also was a professor of economics at Berkeley. Laura now is in charge of the winery, her father an advisor. Here is another excerpt from my interview with Laura.
Dr. Laura Catena, the face of Argentine wine
• What are Bodega Catena Zapata’s positions on sustainable farming, biodynamic methods, and environmental responsibility?
We call our winemaking philosophy CATENAMICS. The CATENAMICS mission: elevate Argentine wine for another 200 years.
The CATENAMICS method is to use science to preserve nature and culture. Catena means “chain” or “connection” in Italian/Latin. “Amics” from the Greek, refers to “law” or “management". CATENAMICS is our way of managing the connection between plants, soil, ecosystem and people.
When I started working in wine, people would always ask me: “Are your wines biodynamic, organic, sustainable”? I found biodynamics very interesting, especially because its advocates emphasized that it made better wine while at the same time protecting the environment. But I asked myself: should we apply in Argentina a philosophy that originated in Germany at the beginning of the 20th Century? Our mountain climate, our vineyard microbes, our animals and plants, our people and our traditions are different. And that is how the concept of CATENAMICS was born, with the method of using science.
I founded the Catena Institute of Wine in 1995—a serious viticultural and winemaking research institute in Mendoza which publishes in major science journals and collaborates with academics all over the world, to preserve nature and culture (our nature and our culture—but the method can be used anywhere). About half our vineyards are organic certified.
As part of our CATENAMICS philosophy we created a Sustainability Code for Argentina in 2008 which we shared with the industry by forming a collaboration with Bodegas de Argentina. Today the Bodegas de Argentina Sustainability Code is used by hundreds of wineries in Argentina. Through this code we have found ways to collaborate with other producers on vineyard management, water preservation, education programs, bottle weight, carbon emissions. We are currently working on a carbon calculator that we plan to share with the wine industry. All our research is published and shared with the local wine community.
Last round
Neo-Prohibitionist: “Alcohol—wine, beer, spirits—are your enemy.” Jesus Christ: “Love your enemy.” That settles it for me. Wine time.
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Laura Catena interview Part Four 12-6-2023