Wine Before Dinner

4 At Angélica Cocina Maestra, cuisine serves as a muse for Catena Zapata vintages—not the other way around.

- Katie Kelly Bell

LAURA CATENA, FOURTH-GENERATION vintner and managing director of Catena Zapata Winery in Mendoza, Argentina, was always opposed to the idea of a winery restaurant—largely because she couldn’t devote the time needed to make it the best in the region. That all changed when her head winemaker, Alejandro Vigil—who, along with his wife, María Sance, owns Mendoza’s top restaurant, Casa Vigil—made an offer.

“We were starting construction on a new vermouth distillery and hospitality centre, and he proposed the idea of adding a restaurant that he would manage,” Catena says. “I agreed on one condition: that he would make wine the star of the dining experience.” Vigil loved the idea, and Angélica Cocina Maestra, the world’s inaugural wine-first restaurant, was born.