2023 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard White Stones Chardonnay Uco Valley 6pk 6x750ml

Catena Zapata isn't just Argentina's most decorated winery — it's the reason the world takes Argentine wine seriously at all. Bodega Catena Zapata is Argentina's original high-altitude Malbec pioneer, with the Catena family making wine in Mendoza since 1902. Third-generation vintner Nicolás Catena was the first to recognize that Mendoza's mountain vineyards could produce world-class fruit, and in 1994 he became the first Argentine to export a truly world-class bottling of Malbec under the Catena name. That same relentless pursuit of place and precision built the accolade wall this estate now owns outright: Catena Zapata was named the #1 Best Vineyard in the World at the 2023 World's Best Vineyards awards, and has taken the #1 South America's Most Admired Wine Brand title from Drinks International four years running, from 2021 through 2024. 

But this isn't the Malbec bottle — it's the Chardonnay that proved Catena could do it in white wine too. Nicolás Catena Zapata planted the Adrianna Vineyard in the Gualtallary district specifically to find the coolest possible site for growing vines anywhere in Mendoza, and White Stones is sourced from a hyper-specific 27-row selection within Block 1 of that vineyard. The Adrianna Vineyard wines carry organic certification from Letis, and the block sits at nearly 5,000 feet of elevation in the Gualtallary sub-district of Tupungato — high enough that cool nights and searing daytime sun build the kind of tension and acidity most Chardonnay producers can only dream of. 

The name says it all: the ground beneath these vines is blanketed in gravel — oval white stones — which is exactly what gives the wine its signature mineral drive, while the fruit is sourced from a section of the vineyard where granite boulders are covered in calcium carbonate. In the cellar, the approach is just as meticulous: the grapes are pressed once with whole bunches, aged in 500-liter barrels with roughly 30% held in tank, and the wine develops flor during aging, layering in an extra dimension of complexity. This isn't a mass-produced Chardonnay — it's a tiny-block, single-vineyard project from the same team that redefined Argentine Malbec, now doing it again in white wine.

And the critics agree it's one of the best whites coming out of South America. The 2023 vintage of Adrianna Vineyard White Stones Chardonnay earned 97 points from James Suckling, 96+ points from The Wine Advocate, and 96 points from Tim Atkin — a trio of top-tier scores that put this bottle in rarefied company among New World Chardonnays. Bottles like this routinely command well over $100 apiece at specialty retailers, which makes landing a full six-pack of a near-97-point, cult-status single-vineyard Chardonnay a genuine event for the cellar.