On Saturday we rented a car to drive out to Maipu, a town just outside of Mendoza famous for its wine and olive production. Gordon, a fellow student here from Chicago, went with us. It took us awhile to find our way over to Maipu as road signs were lacking, but eventually we made our way first to the Wine Museum, part of Bodega Rural (a bodega is a winery). The wine museum holds a huge number of artifacts from the ox-skin sling used to crush grapes (small people would jump up and down on the skin that was filled with grapes, and the juice would run down to be collected in a hide bucket) to tools used for making barrels. The grapes pictured are Malbec. The guide spoke English and Spanish and seemed to be well-versed in wine-making. The tour lasted about 40 minutes followed by tasting one wine, a very young, not very good, Malbec.
Next we went to Bodega Familia diTomaso, one of the oldest wineries dating back to the 1860s. Here we had a tour with just one a few other people and the tour was more about how wines are and were made. In the old brick fermentation vats, they now store bottles and casks of wine to age. In the cellar, they showed how they keep a sample, or register, of bottles from each cask in each year in case there is ever a question about the purity of the wine. Interestingly we learned that the diTomaso wines are sold in the US, but under different labels. One of the wines marketed to the US had a bright red label which she said is meant to appeal to younger wine buyers for example. It makes it very difficult to return to the US and know that you are purchasing from a vineyard you visited though. At diTomaso we sampled four wines. One had been aged 6 months in bottles, the second 6 months in second-use oak casks, and the third was aged one year in first use oak casks. The fourth was a dessert wine from late-harvest grapes. There was quite a difference between the wines. The first had a very alcoholic smell to it and tasted high in alcohol. The second was much smoother even though it was the same age – the only difference was having been aged in oak. The third wine was more complex having been aged longer in new oak barrels. The dessert wine was actually quite good, like a sherry and not overly sweet. We talked some with another couple on the tour with us who live in Ushuaia, at the very southern tip of Argentina. Being wine lovers, they had driven up to Mendoza for vacation!
From the winery we went in search of an olive oil factory. We stopped at a small one where we discovered that there are varietal olive oils, just as there are wines. I think the elderly owner was managing the sampling table. We sampled 4 olive oils by eating pieces of bread that had been soaked in the oils. They were quite distinct. They also cured olives there and we tasted green, black and shriveled black olives. His son took us on a tour of the “factory”, basically 4 machines that are used to make the olive oil. The olives are cleaned and crushed then the pulp moves into a second machine where the pulp is essentially centrifuged to separate out the oil. The oil then goes into tanks where it settles and any water is drained off. The picture of the giant stones is of a machine that used to be used for crushing olives. After the tasting we were informed that the tasting would be 20 pesos/person unless we bought something worth more than that. We were already going to buy one bottle of olive oil, but we ended up buying a set which covered enough of the fee to get us all in “free”.
The olive oil tasting whetted our appetites for lunch. We tried another winery that listed food, but the setting wasn’t as nice so we returned to diTomasso’s lovely outdoor eating area instead. They were really busy during lunch, so we spent close to two hours enjoying lunch and a coffee with a view of the vineyards. I also enjoyed a fruity glass of the vineyards Torrontes white wine.
Instead of dessert, we went to Historias y Sabores, an artesanal, family run chocolate and liqueur place. They led us and another couple through a brief description of how they make their products followed by a tasting of chocolates, and your choice of one liqueur and 3 jams/jellies/savory spreads. The liqueur samples were generous and quite good. Gordon got a dulce de leche liqueur, Jake a chocolate banana liqueur, and I stuck with the grape theme by trying their grappa. We actually bought a bottle of the chocolate banana liqueur, which despite the perhaps unappealing sound of it, tasted refreshing and chocolaty. The chocolates were unfortunately not particularly notable. The jams and savory spreads on the other hand tasted quite good. We thought we would try to go to one other larger, more modern winery, but it was further away than we though, and we headed back to downtown.
In the evening, family friend Hugo picked us up. He and his wife Haydee had returned from visiting the US recently and this was the first time we had met them. They were very warm and welcoming. Hugo took us on a brief tour to see a modern glass and steel church noted for its architecture and to point out where he and his wife work before heading to his house a few minutes outside of downtown. We met his three kids and a few other assorted friends and relatives and their friendly dog over empanadas in the back yard under a full moon. A delightful evening!
Next we went to Bodega Familia diTomaso, one of the oldest wineries dating back to the 1860s. Here we had a tour with just one a few other people and the tour was more about how wines are and were made. In the old brick fermentation vats, they now store bottles and casks of wine to age. In the cellar, they showed how they keep a sample, or register, of bottles from each cask in each year in case there is ever a question about the purity of the wine. Interestingly we learned that the diTomaso wines are sold in the US, but under different labels. One of the wines marketed to the US had a bright red label which she said is meant to appeal to younger wine buyers for example. It makes it very difficult to return to the US and know that you are purchasing from a vineyard you visited though. At diTomaso we sampled four wines. One had been aged 6 months in bottles, the second 6 months in second-use oak casks, and the third was aged one year in first use oak casks. The fourth was a dessert wine from late-harvest grapes. There was quite a difference between the wines. The first had a very alcoholic smell to it and tasted high in alcohol. The second was much smoother even though it was the same age – the only difference was having been aged in oak. The third wine was more complex having been aged longer in new oak barrels. The dessert wine was actually quite good, like a sherry and not overly sweet. We talked some with another couple on the tour with us who live in Ushuaia, at the very southern tip of Argentina. Being wine lovers, they had driven up to Mendoza for vacation!
From the winery we went in search of an olive oil factory. We stopped at a small one where we discovered that there are varietal olive oils, just as there are wines. I think the elderly owner was managing the sampling table. We sampled 4 olive oils by eating pieces of bread that had been soaked in the oils. They were quite distinct. They also cured olives there and we tasted green, black and shriveled black olives. His son took us on a tour of the “factory”, basically 4 machines that are used to make the olive oil. The olives are cleaned and crushed then the pulp moves into a second machine where the pulp is essentially centrifuged to separate out the oil. The oil then goes into tanks where it settles and any water is drained off. The picture of the giant stones is of a machine that used to be used for crushing olives. After the tasting we were informed that the tasting would be 20 pesos/person unless we bought something worth more than that. We were already going to buy one bottle of olive oil, but we ended up buying a set which covered enough of the fee to get us all in “free”.
The olive oil tasting whetted our appetites for lunch. We tried another winery that listed food, but the setting wasn’t as nice so we returned to diTomasso’s lovely outdoor eating area instead. They were really busy during lunch, so we spent close to two hours enjoying lunch and a coffee with a view of the vineyards. I also enjoyed a fruity glass of the vineyards Torrontes white wine.
Instead of dessert, we went to Historias y Sabores, an artesanal, family run chocolate and liqueur place. They led us and another couple through a brief description of how they make their products followed by a tasting of chocolates, and your choice of one liqueur and 3 jams/jellies/savory spreads. The liqueur samples were generous and quite good. Gordon got a dulce de leche liqueur, Jake a chocolate banana liqueur, and I stuck with the grape theme by trying their grappa. We actually bought a bottle of the chocolate banana liqueur, which despite the perhaps unappealing sound of it, tasted refreshing and chocolaty. The chocolates were unfortunately not particularly notable. The jams and savory spreads on the other hand tasted quite good. We thought we would try to go to one other larger, more modern winery, but it was further away than we though, and we headed back to downtown.
In the evening, family friend Hugo picked us up. He and his wife Haydee had returned from visiting the US recently and this was the first time we had met them. They were very warm and welcoming. Hugo took us on a brief tour to see a modern glass and steel church noted for its architecture and to point out where he and his wife work before heading to his house a few minutes outside of downtown. We met his three kids and a few other assorted friends and relatives and their friendly dog over empanadas in the back yard under a full moon. A delightful evening!
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