2020 was a very dry and low-yielding year, with 20% to 30% less crop, and the grapes were picked early. The 2020 Nicolás Catena Zapata was produced with a blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc and 21% Malbec, higher in Franc than ever, for the first time more than Malbec, to compensate the warm and dry conditions. The wine is ripe and very peppery, with 13.9% alcohol and a pH of 3.64. It matured in new and second-use French oak barrels for 18 months. It was a healthy crop with concentration and ripeness, and the wine comes through as powerful and quite classical, still a little oaky, with power and balance. 60,000 bottles were filled in January 2020.

Some of the vineyards from Catena are suffering from phylloxera, and parts of some vineyards have to be grubbed up and replanted.