By Fernando Cwilich Gil for BlackBook (BBook.com)Multi-tasking winemaker Laura Catena not only had a hand in the Malbec revolution that put the South American wine on the global map, she's also an ER doc in San Francisco when she's not running Catena Zapata back home in Argentina. Between carnivorous bites at Buenos Aires, her favorite gaucho steakhouse in New York, the Cali resident and mother of two dished on her comprehensive new book, Vino Argentino, juggling disparate lives on two continents, being part of a storied Argentine wine family, and getting iJacked in South America.
On working as both a winemaker in Argentina and an ER doctor in San Francisco:
People always ask me why I work so much, and I tell them it’s because in Argentina nothing lasts, so you always have to be prepared. Argentines live from their emotional connections. You live from your family, the relationships with your friends, because the economy isn’t stable. Even the richest person in Argentina knows that sooner or later everything changes. So you end up living in the now. We live in the today. That’s what I talk about in the book.
On running a business in Argentina’s volatile economy:
You usually can’t project business too far ahead in Argentina because there’s an economic crash cycle, yet with my company I have the 100-year plan which always comes as a shock in Argentina. We have 70-year-old-vineyards. And they’re still in the family, which is rare these days in Argentina, where foreigners own many of the wineries.
On her new book Vino Argentino: An Insider’s Guide to the Wines and Wine Country of Argentina (Chronicle Books):
The book is about Argentine wine and its history. It starts in the 16th century through the present, covering all aspects of wine culture and food culture, including an actual glossary of Argentine food terms. And I also talk about trailblazers - people who’ve been important in Argentine wine history. So naturally there’s people like José Alberto Zuccardi who’s very Argentine, whose father came from Italy and started his winery. But I also include people like Michael Halstrick from Bodega Norton, José Manuel Ortega of Bodegas y Viñedos O. Fournier, Michel Rolland of Antucurá, and Donald Hess of Bodega Colomé. So it’s a mix of Argentines and foreigners because these days 45 percent of the wineries in Argentina that export wine are either owned by a foreigner or have a foreign consultant. But we also have our own Argentine wine tradition, of course
On the Catena family’s penchant for multi-city pursuits:
My brother is getting his PhD at Oxford. My other brother Ernesto owns a gallery in Palermo Soho and is back and forth between Buenos Aires and Mendoza, same as my father. And I’m back and forth between Argentina and California.
On the differences between her two homes in Mendoza and San Francisco:
The fun part about Argentina is it’s contradictory. For example, it’s a macho society but recently became the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage. And I like the chaos. It’s interesting going back and forth. Because sometimes you get tired of the chaos. And here in the US you get tired of.. Read full article
Comments
How did she do all of this and then some. I have such admiration for her that will be my honor to correspond or just talk to her.
regard.
Edwin Arteaga
Your number one fan!!!
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