Wednesday, January 26, 2011
I made sure to have a large, bread-filled breakfast this morning as I was picked up for a full day wine tour at 9:45am. By the time we’d collected the other passengers, including Kelly and Tom from yesterday and one other American (Andy, from Boston who is starting his MBA at Penn in the fall), and arrived at the first bodega it was 10:45am. We had a short tour of the San Huberto winery before our tasting, first a rosé Malbec, then a 2009 Malbec and finally a white dessert wine.
Our next stop, Pasrai, is an olive factory which has been producing extra virgin olive oil for 90 years. They still use the same manual methods and machinery. We sampled the virgin olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, garlic olive oil, sundried tomatoes with oregano olive oil and olive tapenade with basil olive oil. So delicious that I bought a couple mini bottles.
We had a tour of Cecchin bodega (a small organic winery) and tasting (including a 2007 Malbec) before sitting down for lunch. It was such a beautiful setting, in middle of the vineyard shaded by a huge tree. Kelly, Tom, Ophelia and Joel (Tom’s Australian friends), Andy (from Boston) and I sat around a large circular table sipping wine and digging into the bread. Lunch started with a warm tomato compote on bread followed by lamb with mashed potatoes and fruit for dessert. Excellent food, relaxing afternoon and gorgeous setting – life doesn’t get much better.
Post-lunch, we headed to our final bodega, the large bodega Familia Zuccardi. While waiting for our tour, the power went out and we were offered free glasses of sparkling rosé. Kate, an American from Colorado, showed us around the winery before our tasting. We tried the Syrah rosé, 2009 Malbec and white dessert wine.
Before returning to Mendoza, our final stop was a la Antigua, a small shop producing liquors, chocolates, jams and other spreads. It was so crowded we waited outside 15 minutes for our “tour”. The tour ended up being a woman showing us each product produced in the small building. Apparently the woman does the jams, etc while the man does the chocolate and liquor. In any case, it was a waste of time. The only good part was sampling a liquor of our choice, I selected chocolate mint. I did buy a couple chocolates since it was supposed to be a chocolate factory, but the quality was fair.
Ten hours after being picked up, I was dropped at the hostel. Now that it’s the end of the day, I can’t tell you much about the wines I sampled, but many of them were enjoyable and I didn’t purchase any (since I can’t carry them around for four more months). I heard a lot today about the aging processes in French and American oak, number of times barrels are used (before they are sold for a mere $50, purchased for something much higher), and the care taken for the premium wines (and therefore the mass production of the younger, cheaper wines). It is only 8:30pm, but I’m exhausted from the day. Fun tour with great people and excellent bodegas and fantastic lunch. Going to do my own wine tour tomorrow, by bike.
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