Alejandro Vigil – Argentina (Bodega Catena Zapata)

Name: Alejandro Vigil

Country: Argentina

Currently: Head Winemaker of Bodega Catena Zapata

Website: http://www.catenawines.com/

Questions:

Please, tell us about how you got into wine, the wine industry and how your career developed?

This is not a choice for me, it is the only thing that I learned to do. When I talk about this I mean it is the only thing that arouses my intellectual and spiritual interest. I owe it to my grandfather who spent years of my childhood to show me the beautiful and unique world of vineyards and wine. He taught me to respect and love the pain in the hands and feel the gratification of working in giving pleasure to others by this unique drink. So I begun working with my grandfather, when I was 18 years old I started working in a small winery, then, when I was 20 I worked at INTA (NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY) and when I turned 30 I begun at Catena Zapata.

What is your philosophy to making wine and viticulture?

It is quite simple, first of all nothing is written, everything is to be discovered, to be studied and to be experienced. But the basis is that the wine is made in the vineyard and in the spirit of the man who is thinking about it. The winery is only the instrument to express that conjunction man-terroir, as long as we understand terroir as the summation of centenarian experiences in the cultivation of grapes and making wines of a particular place. Any other type of intervention goes against my philosophy of my ideal.

Which cultivar is your favourite to work with and why?

I especially like to work with three varietals and the reason is the same for the three of them. The chardonnay, cabernet franc and malbec are plastic and are expressed differently in each area, sub area or small places. this plasticity allows us to have a wide range and therefore a lot of different wines that express the terroir without forcing anything, summering it allow to see the identity of the terroir.

How do you see the future of wine production and what are the challenges and the opportunities?

In my ideal and I really do not know if it could happen, is that we’re heading to a world without varietal identification, i guess we’ll talk about this and/or other area, this means that the winemakers, viticulturists and especially consumers are evolving to the identity, the diverse. This is a world that we must discover and communicate so that it is not only a drink but a culture behind a bottle.

Where do you see the global wine market in 2025?

I see it separated in two worlds. One, the volume wine, without identity and the other one much more specific and not necessarily expensive, representing cultures, people , those small worlds where each other dream about its future.

Alejandro Vigil

@ by Dominik Kozlik – Zeitgeist Sommeliers – International Sommelier Positions – www.sommelier-jobs.com