Gran Enemigo Red Blend, El Enemigo 2021
Tim Atkin MW Tim Atkin 93; Vinous 96 (2025); Descorchados 95 (2025); James Suckling 93
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Why this wine
Sixteen months in concrete and not a day in new oak means the 1,470-metre site does all the talking: dark fruit, herb and a saline edge rather than vanilla. The cool 2021 season delivered fewer degree-days but fully ripe skins, which is why the wine feels velvety at only 13.5% alcohol. It is the clearest argument in the range for what high-altitude Gualtallary can do with a blend.
At a glance
- Grape
- Malbec, Cabernet Franc
- Region
- Mendoza, Argentina
- Alcohol
- 13.50%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- High
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Medium (5-10 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Barbecue, Cheese
How it tastes
Blackberry and blueberry lead, lifted by herbal and floral notes and accents of cardamom and liquorice. Full-bodied and velvety, with fresh acidity, ripe supple tannins and a savoury, faintly saline edge running through the finish. Malbec, Cabernet Franc.
The producer
El Enemigo was founded in 2010 by Adrianna Catena, daughter of Nicolás Catena Zapata, with Alejandro Vigil, head winemaker at Bodega Catena Zapata; the name translates as 'the enemy', a nod to the internal battles behind the pursuit of better wine and to challenging the status quo, and the estate placed 17th in the Top 100 of the World's Best Vineyards Awards 2025. The fruit comes from a high-density vineyard in Gualtallary, Tupungato, at 1,470 metres, where wide diurnal shifts give the grapes a long hang time; the terroir is deliberately varied, running from sandy loam over a limestone base for the Malbec to calcareous, rocky soil for the Cabernet Franc. The site is farmed to organic practices without certification, using natural herb and pest control, high trellises and drip irrigation, and everything is picked by hand. The 2021 harvest ran over five separate passes across a month and a half, followed by five days of cold maceration and a wild-yeast ferment in concrete vats averaging 22°C, with a fifth of the grapes fermented as whole bunches and 23 days of maceration in total; maturation then lasted 16 months, again in concrete. That season was cool and wetter, with 15 to 20 per cent fewer degree-days than 2020, giving moderate sugars, optimal acidity and unusually ripe skins.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16-18°C. It suits grilled ribeye, slow-roast lamb, beef short rib off the barbecue, or a mature hard cheese. Drinking now but built to keep ten to twenty years; an hour in a decanter helps while it is young. Sealed with a DIAM closure. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.