Laura Catena

A Harvard and Stanford trained biologist and physician, Dr. Laura Catena was born into one of the world's great wine families. In her journey to elevate Argentine wine, Laura became obsessed with understanding what lies behind the most collected wines in the world. After publishing Argentina's definitive wine guide, "Vino Argentino" (Chronicle Books, 2010), Laura began to put together the materials for a book that would highlight the historical circumstances and relevant vineyard details that are at the core of the world's most iconic wines. "Gold in the Vineyards" is the result of 25 years of Laura's research into wine history, interviews and meetings with the world's best-known wine families, and vineyard studies at the Catena Institute of Wine, which she founded in 1995. "Gold in the Vineyards" received the 2019 award for "Best in Wine History" from Gourmand Cookbook Awards. In 2021, Laura Catena and Catena Zapata's celebrated wine director, Alejandro Vigil, published "Malbec mon amour", an illustrated book that details the history, geology, taste profile and music-wine pairings of Argentina's iconic grape, Malbec. A beautiful review of the book by Florence Fabricant appeared in the New York Times on January 19th, 2022. Dr. Laura Catena has been named one of the top 25 wine innovators by Grape Collective, and has been an invited speaker at Wine Spectator's New York Wine Experience, the Nantucket Food and Wine Festival, the Naples Winter Wine Festival, Texsom, the MUST Summit, the Master of Wine Symposium, the American Society of Wine Educators, the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter in London and Shanghai, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Vancouver Playhouse, among others. She has appeared in Oprah magazine as one of the World's Top Women Vintners. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine Magazine, Decanter, and The Economist 1843 magazine, among others. She has a robust social media following on Instagram (@LauraCatenaMD) and Twitter (@lauracatena).