Santiago Mayorga

Coming Up

The early record is built through cellar work at Catena Zapata, then Zuccardi Valle de Uco, then Mendel, with Santiago Mayorga in the winemaker role at each stop. That sequence places him inside several of Mendoza’s most established houses, where repeated exposure to different estates can sharpen a winemaker’s sense of discipline, range, and comparison. In 2013, he took on the role of winemaker at Nieto Senetiner, extending a career that has been shaped across vineyards and cellars central to modern Argentine wine. Since 2024, Santiago has served as director of technology of Nieto Senetiner and Cadus Wines, where the work reaches beyond finished wine and into the systems and methods that support it. The title fits a career that has stayed close to detail while remaining open to change: less about freezing a style in place than about directing it with consistency and precision.

Where They Are Now

He has described Cadus directly: "Cadus is our more extreme brand!" The line points to a project alongside his long-running winemaking work in Luján de Cuyo, with more room for range and edge inside the same portfolio. In that setting, Mayorga’s method extends without drifting from the rigor that has marked his earlier work.

Signature

Santiago's signature wines include Barrel Select Malbec 2016 and Don Nicanor. Together, they give a clear read on the style associated with his name: polished without anonymity, tied to place, and built through long work across labels and vintages.

In Their Words “"We are really pushing the bar to make great new things. In fact, we are now bottling a Criolla for Cadus; we are doing lots of new things!"” “"When I got into the world of wine I realized that if I only talked about the vineyard I was leaving the story halfway through."” Taken together, the two remarks frame the work beyond farming alone. The vineyard is the starting point, not the whole account; cellar decisions, technical thinking, and the effort to say something new all sit in the rest of the process.

Honors

No awards are cited for Santiago Mayorga.