Winery Overview
Cuarto Dominio is a small family winery created by two 4th generation families in the art of viticulture and winemaking. Winemakers Andrés Blanchard, Andrés’s sister Constanza Blanchard, and Javier Catena have deep family roots in Argentina’s winemaking history. The family of Javier Catena has grown vines in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Mendoza for over four generations. The great grandfather of Javier Catena, President of Bodega Cuarto Dominio, was born in the little town of Tolentino in Italy at the end of the 1800s. He was a vineyard worker there until he sailed from Italy to Argentina in 1898. When he arrived in Mendoza, he was taken aback by the splendor of the Andes, by its landscapes and by the people that received him so warmly. He was convinced he wanted to follow his dream here and planted his first Malbec vineyard in 1902. Up until that point, Malbec was a blending grape in Bordeaux, but Nicola supposed it would find its perfect place in Mendoza. Domingo, Javier’s grandfather, decided to continue fulfilling his father’s dream and took the family winery to the next level, becoming one of the largest vineyard owners and building one of the biggest wineries in Argentina. During this time, Javier’s father, Jorge Catena, studied enology in Mendoza and started working in the family winery in the mid-1960s. Jorge specialized in winemaking and oenology. At the end of the 1970s, Jorge believed that in order to produce the best wines of Argentina and to be able to compete against the greatest wines in the world, he must learn the latest technologies and winemaking techniques, so he decided to travel to California to study at the University of California at Davis. He also travelled several times to Europe and to Australia and focused the majority of his studies on French winemaking techniques. When he returned, Jorge continued working in the family winery, following his father’s dream. In 2006, Jorge decided to pursue a different path and started a new project with his sons. In 2008, Bodega Cuarto Dominio was born, to which Javier Catena was named President. Andrés Blanchard Perez and Constanza Blanchard also belong to a 4th generation of a family with a long tradition in the wine industry. Their family tradition that started with their great grandfather, Nicolas Perez Ugarte, a Spanish immigrant who started working for one of the oldest wineries in Mendoza, Bodega Arizu, on their winemaking team in the 1930s. Then, their grandfather Florentino Perez Perez, continued with this passion for wine by planting the first 36 family hectares of vineyard in the San Martin district of Mendoza during the 1960s. He used to produce wines in small volumes only for his family and friends’ consumption. During the 1980’s, André and Constanza’s parents continued with the family tradition. In 2009 their mother Monica and André acquired 5 hectares of land in the Uco Valley because they were looking for a colder area than the traditional East Valley, higher in altitude and nearer to the Andes Mountains where the finest grapes give origin to the most elegant and complex wines of Argentina. Today, Bodega Cuarto Dominio offers a range of Malbec from different parcels of land with varying lengths of aging in French oak. Extreme temperature variation between seasons at the foothills of the Andes pushes the limit of grape growing ability but provides structure and finesse to finished wines. The winery has been recognized for their wines by top publications and has received 90+ points on at least one wine for the last eleven consecutive vintages (Wine Enthusiast, James Suckling, Tim Atkin).