Founder
Read moreDr. Laura Catena is a fourth generation Argentine vintner, physician and author. Laura was born in Mendoza and spent her childhood with her grandfather Domingo at the family's winery in the small village of La Libertad. Laura graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1988 and has a Medical Doctor degree from Stanford University. In 1995 Laura joined her father Nicolás Catena Zapata at the family winery with the vision of making Argentine wines that could stand with the best of the world. Laura founded of her own Luca Winery in Mendoza, Argentina in 1999 to explore the quality potential of small OLD VINE family owned vineyards in the Uco Valley region of Mendoza. Laura splits her time between Mendoza, Argentina and San Francisco, California. Dr. Laura Catena has been called "the face of Argentine wine" for her active role in studying and promoting the Mendoza wine region and Argentine Malbec. Laura's life obsession is to learn more about high altitude viticulture, the vineyard soil microbiome and wine ageability.
Winemaker
Read moreRoy Urvieta grew up in the La Consulta district of Mendoza, one of Argentina's most famous regions for high-quality wine. He began his studies in computer science, but after a summer job at Catena when he was 18 years old, Roy fell in love with winemaking. Roy continued to work as a winemaker alongside Alejandro Vigil and Fernando Buscema at the Catena Institute while he finished his Enology degree at Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (UTN).
One of Roy's first projects was to study the behavior of different Pinot Noir clones and record the quality of each parcel.
In 2016 Roy started his Ph.D. in Agronomy at the Universidad de Buenos Aires with focus in Sensory Science. His Ph.D. thesis aims to uncover the scientific basis for the flavors and aromas of Malbec across the various Mendoza wine regions. Currently, Roy is working with Laura Catena to elaborate authentic and elegant high-altitude Argentine Pinot Noir.
Founder
>Dr. Laura Catena is a fourth generation Argentine vintner, physician and author. Laura was born in Mendoza and spent her childhood with her grandfather Domingo at the family's winery in the small village of La Libertad. Laura graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1988 and has a Medical Doctor degree from Stanford University. In 1995 Laura joined her father Nicolás Catena Zapata at the family winery with the vision of making Argentine wines that could stand with the best of the world.
Laura founded of her own Luca Winery in Mendoza, Argentina in 1999 to explore the quality potential of small OLD VINE family owned vineyards in the Uco Valley region of Mendoza. Laura splits her time between Mendoza, Argentina and San Francisco, California.
Dr. Laura Catena has been called "the face of Argentine wine" for her active role in studying and promoting the Mendoza wine region and Argentine Malbec. Laura's life obsession is to learn more about high altitude viticulture, the vineyard soil microbiome and wine ageability.
Winemaker
>Roy Urvieta grew up in the La Consulta district of Mendoza, one of Argentina's most famous regions for high-quality wine. He began his studies in computer science, but after a summer job at Catena when he was 18 years old, Roy fell in love with winemaking. Roy continued to work as a winemaker alongside Alejandro Vigil and Fernando Buscema at the Catena Institute while he finished his Enology degree at Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (UTN).
One of Roy's first projects was to study the behavior of different Pinot Noir clones and record the quality of each parcel.
In 2016 Roy started his Ph.D. in Agronomy at the Universidad de Buenos Aires with focus in Sensory Science. His Ph.D. thesis aims to uncover the scientific basis for the flavors and aromas of Malbec across the various Mendoza wine regions. Currently, Roy is working with Laura Catena to elaborate authentic and elegant high-altitude Argentine Pinot Noir.
- The story behind the name -
Domaine Nico is named after Laura's daughter, Nicola, which pays homage to Laura's great grand-father, Nicola Catena, founder of Catena Zapata winery in 1902.
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All the inspiration in this project was Laura Catena’s trips to France, who, at age 15 left alone to France to live and work in a granja, to study art, never thinking about wine.
“ I have read so many books by Sartre, Camus and the great french writers and I always had that connection with France, I love the wines of Burgundy, like all of us wine lovers. I thought the label could pay ”hommage” to Burgundy, but I wanted a label that also had some argentinian humor, something about my family and my personality. That’s when I thought about “Soeur et Frères” (sister and brothers) because it always bothered me that in France the said Frères et Soeurs, frères before soeurs. Afterwards, when I thought about each parcel, the names of the wines came up to me not in spanish, not in english, but in french”.
