Saturday, April 9, 2011

Arrival in Cafayete and Wine

I’ve left the Salta area and am making my way down the country. As of this morning, I’ve pretty much changed the rest of my itinerary in Argentina. The thing about the Lonely Planet guide books are that they say something nice about everyplace. In other words, not every place is as nice as they say. I had a conversation with some travelers and Argentineans last night and this morning and they gave me some pretty pointed reviews about a couple of the places I was planning on spending three to four days at. Now, they’ll only be pit stops on my way elsewhere. This is all good stuff. It means that I’m going to lengthen my stay here in Cafayete (which is completely lovely) and lengthen my stay in Mendoza, which, the more I hear about, the more excited I become to go there. To think that it wasn’t on my itinerary at all when I initially planned this trip! I’m glad that I went ahead and dropped the relatively small amount of money to fly down there. It helps that the exchange rate right now four pesos to one USD.

My trip from Salta to Cafayete was mixed. It was my third straight day of being on a listing, tilting vehicle as it careened around multitudes of tight corners. My stomach started to lurch and my head was pounding so it was a little difficult to enjoy the absolutely unbelievable territory of the Quebrada de Cafayete, a massive gorge of towering and stunning proportions and incredible rock formations and colors. My cranky self was saying, “Yeah, more stunning mountains, uh-huh.” And the non-cranky part of me was saying, “Wow, incredible, absolutely and totally incredible!”

The way I’ve decided to resolve this is to take a trip back into the gorge in the afternoon to a few of the key landmarks and watch the sunset set the mountain’s colors on fire. I think it will likely be utterly spectacular.

My first day in Cafayete, I settled into my new hostel, a quiet, clean and roomy place just off the main square.

Then off to taste a few wines.

I visited the two most recommended wineries in the area, Bodega Nanni and Bodega El Transito. Argentina is specifically known for malbec, but I also tasted a cab, a tanat, and a torrontes. The interesting thing about this wine region is that it’s desert so that has a very intense effect on the grapes. The reds are all hot, meaning they have a high concentration of sugars that make the wine very alcoholic tasting. Most of the wines are in the 14% range. And most of the wines that they drink here, no matter a white or red, it’s meant to drink young, to drink now. Aging apparently won’t do any favor for these varietals.

The interesting this is that this also makes these wines perfect for what they eat a lot of here, and that’s red meat – beef, llama, goat, and other strong and gamey flesh. So it’s this perfect partnership. However, I’m so far not finding a lot of subtlety or dimension to the wines, which is what I’m really used to, and like in my favorite California, French, Australian and New Zealand wines. So I’m adjusting my expectations and thinking instead of how to appreciate this wine exactly for what it is and what it does. This has helped me begin to appreciate the straightforward characteristics of the wines made here.

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