Today, we headed to Lujan de Cuyo - about a 30 minute drive from where we were staying. We were in Maipu yesterday and the other region is called Uco Valley - about 1.5 hours away from where we stayed.
Marcelo was fantastic again - he made all the reservations for us, and shared some wonderful knowledge as we were driving around. Plus his music choice was amazing - a mix of Jay Z, traditional Argentine music, and the best of it all - 80s Argentine music.
1. Carinae
This boutique winery is owned by a French couple who came to Mendoza in 1998. It was abandoned in the 1980s, and revived by the couple. All of the wines are named after constellations, and "carinae" is the constellation over Mendoza during wine harvest (which was when we happened to be there - perfect timing!) We had a nice tour of the facilities, and another wine tasting. These early wine tastings are a bit difficult, especially at 10:30am - talk about an eye opener.. just kidding! Kyle bought a bottle of wine here - partly because it tasted good and mostly because he can say he has a bottle of wine that can only be bought in one place in the world at the winery.
2. Archaval Ferrer
This was easily the best tour of all the wineries. We had an indepth 1.5 hour tour watching the wine being made. We started by watching the truck dump the grapes in to the warehouse, then the workers loading them on to the machines and hand sorting any malformed grapes out. The grapes then headed to have the stems removed, and then requality checked. After that, the skin was removed.
We went to where the vats of wine were filled and the yeast added for fermentation. We got to taste some of the wine before it was put into the barrels to age. We tasted the altavista 2013 - it was interesting to taste before being aged, but was pretty delicious. We then toured the warehouse with all of the barrels, and got to taste wine directly from the barrel - altavista 2012, even more delicious.
The barrels are all made of French oak, and coast about $1500 each. Wines can be aged from 6-18 months (of course the more premium being aged for longer). The barrels can be used up to 4 times, again the first use reserved for the premium wines.
Another great tasting finished off this tour.
3. Lunch at Ruca Malen
We headed to another incredible winery from lunch. Our view was amazing from the table - we almost had to pinch ourselves to verify it was still there. This was not Argentine barbeque (we needed a day of rest from that) and was a 5 course tasting menu. Incredibly delicious and the pairings were perfect.
4. Carmelo Patti
Our last winery was in a little town outside of Mendoza. It is a family operation which happens all in one spot - the vineyards, wine storage, barrels, and bottling. The character in this place was amazing - the concrete wine vats are from the 1940s and the original building I doubt has been repainted since then. Really nice tasting.
We got back to the hotel that evening and unfortunately were hit with a stomach bug. Thus the blog silence. All is good now!
Pictures:
Concrete wine vat at Carinae
Vineyards at Archaval Ferrer
Wine glasses at lunch!
Had to get a picture of the grapes!
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