Wine

Yesterday was such a lovely day.  We could not have asked for better weather on this trip.  It is sunny and cool enough to be completely comfortable walking around in jeans and a t-shirt or light jacket.  We love it.  It is spring here and all the trees have started blooming this weekend.
We did our wine tour yesterday and had a great time.  We went with five Australians and our guide Mattius.  We were able to see three different wineries and were gone most of the day.
Achaval Ferrer was the first winery and vineyard we went to.  It was a ¨small winery¨ - they only make 200,000 liters every year.  We got the grand tour and then tried their wine.  We were not overly impressed and when they brought us the price list we were shocked.  The only wine we had somewhat liked was $100 per bottle!  After the wine, we tried their olive oil and that was delightful!  We bought some of that, and now wish we would have gotten more.

The outdoor sitting area where we did the tasting session

The view of the mountains all around us was gorgeous!

Balasco de Baquendo was our second winery, which exports most of their wine to the USA and other countries.

Our less than enthused tour guide - we were glad to have Mattius whispering extra interesting details to us throughout the tour

The tour was quick, but their claim to fame was their sniffing room.  They had a huge room lined with little stations where you could smell the primary, secondary, and tertiary qualities of wines, as well as the defects that you may find in some.  It was a very interesting little lesson.  It´s so amazing that grapes can go through such a transformation to create such different smells and flavors of various fruits and flowers with nothing else added.

Following the tour we were led to the third floor of the winery for our lunch.  It was a four course meal with wine parings and a spectacular view of the Andes Mountains.  We were able to visit out on their huge patio while we waited for lunch and we could have stayed there all day.

Following a very necessary coffee after our huge meal, we all headed off to the next winery desperately in need of a nap.  We woke up though when we arrived at the smallest of all the wineries in the tour and were able to meet the owner Carmelo, who is good friends with our tour guide.

Carmelo has such passion for the art of making wine and does most of the work himself.  We learned how to inspect the cork when aging wine and many other things.

Upon arriving back at the hostel everyone dispersed for a nap before the evening.  Dinner is not eaten before 9:00pm so we had plenty of time to rest up in preparation.  We were invited to a BBQ with the owner of the hostel, Lucas, and his family and some other friends of theirs.  We went and bought meat, which they prepared for us in the Argentinean manner and drank more wine and visited and talked and laughed until at least 2:00am, while the kiddos ran around and played.  I finally tried the blood sausage (which is ok - Scott loves it of course) and we were especially amused by Diega, Lucas´ three year old daughter, who refused to eat any of the other meat besides the blood sausage.   It is her favorite! 

Mattius & Lucas

Diega showing us her harmonica

Cooking our meat on the outdoor grill

We have been having such a good time here and I´m glad we decided to come.  Today we are going to have a picnic in the park, attempt to buy some wine to bring home, and enjoy our last day in town.  Tomorrow we plan on taking ¨the most spectacular bus ride in Latin America¨ through the Andes Mountains to Santiago, Chile.  We will be flying to the states tomorrow night and should hopefully be home by Tuesday night.