Here is the link to more of Delisa’s fantastic pictures….
Here is the link to more of my pictures: www.facebook.com/album.php and more:
Wednesday night we went to a little local milonga hosted by Jose y Ana. It was great to see everyone using their new found tango confidence to dance with some locals as opposed to shying away from the idea…
On Thursday we woke up relatively early – it was still dark out at 8am! And we had a long drive ahead of us. We were headed to Uco Valley – Valle de Uco. This is much higher, chillier. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get there. We were supposed to go to Andeluna and they couldn’t confirm our reservation so we got a last minute visit with La Azul. A really small bodega. We had a lovely tour and fabulous explanation of their wine-making process. Each tasting is individual – and also corresponds to each persons habits. For example, a person who drinks orange juice will experience the wine very differently than someone who maybe drinks coffee in the morning. The distinguishing of the acidity will be different for these 2 people. Luis, our tour”guide” told us that he loves Fernet (this bitter liquor that you add to Coke). He had to give up Fernet when he became involved in this business – his palate had become used to the bitterness of the Fernet and therefore could not distinguish “bitter” taste in wines.
We then went off to Jean Bousquet. This bodega is like a machine – it has lots of machines too!!! They do not sell their wines in Argentina – they do all their business for export. We became thoroughly entertained with Bousquet’s German Shepherd pup who just wanted to play. His name is Buster and whoever would pick up a rock or a piece of wood or whatever and throw it – he would fetch it back. There were plenty of us in the group who happily obliged him! TOO CUTE!
Bousquet was interesting to see how as it seemed very hands off in terms of “quality control”. He advertises that he uses organic grapes in his winemaking. The grapes are planted in soil that contains re-constituted flowers and does not contain pesticides. There are roses planted at the end of every row of grapes. The roses help in discouraging bugs and they use sulfur and copper to ward off any other critters (like wolves, etc) who do not like the smell. Very interesting. Also their reserve malbec was only $25 – right? 25 pesos….
We then went to Salentien – a very big fancy winery to have lunch and tour. Well – we had lunch and well, missed our tour!!!! This winery might be interesting to visit again next year. They have a museum, a chapel and the restaurant. The building is built like a cross. Lunch was ok…..
Here’s the gang with a complimentary glass of champagne. This is our last outing together for this year. We head back to Buenos Aires later today. And after that everyone starts their journey back to Arizona.