Day 4
February 9, 2014
Wine tasting in Mendoza can start with a pick up time of 8:30 AM!
We beg off for half an hour due to our late arrival at this boutique estancia outside of the city: Chacras de Coria, a family owned vineyard. The planes from Buenos Aires to Mendoza were overbooked and in chaos from unexpected rain storms that knocked out the power in many neighborhoods, including exclusive Recoleta.
Finca Adalgiza will be our home for three nights. The full breakfast in the morning is nicely presented with a sleepy staff keeping up with the guests’ requests . The “chef’s choice” of tapas is our “dinner” and we enjoy trays full of nuts & cheeses or roasted vegetables with our complementary glass of wine.
We are within a few short blocks of the central square of Chacras, an upscale town outside the bustle of the city of Mendoza.
The Fulotti Family still lives here on this little vineyard producing wine and olive oil. An older woman still enjoys her home, while we stay in attractive connecting rooms along the edge of the vineyard where water flows thru black tubes to water the roots.
Water is the key to the success of the Mendoza wine region we learn on our first day with beautiful guide Anna. She travels with us to the small vineyard to the famous UCO Valley where the water is controlled by the Lujan de Cuyo department. All the water is diverted from the river thru locks and canal sluices to the farms. For the last 7 years, on one side of the road is a swirl of water and on the other side of the road it is completely dry.
Salentein Winery was our second winery – they make 10 million bottles a year – yes, that is a big winery!
The building is a contemporary clean monument with a full basement of storage for the barrels and stainless steel tanks and bottling facility AND three art galleries.
We had a memorable lunch here: a set menu of 3 courses beautifully presented, small elegant portions with wines that were described – sabroso! super delicious.
The outdoor sculpture is a welcome addition, as you can see from these pix. Look at Michael and Ed clowning around here! The museum of art was a nice addition – one gallery is dedicated to art for sale.
By the end of the day, with Anna our guide’s careful explanations, we were well versed in the vintner’s vocabulary: the scent, the flavor, the finish, the terroir that result from a variety of processes, timings and transitions from one barrel to another: steel first, new oak or old oak second, then finally – at the right moment of fermentation after being harvested at just the right day – the product is put into the bottle with a label, and sealed with a Portuguese or plastic cork.
What a lot to remember!
Back we travel to Chacras de Coria, a small town north of Mendoza, we return to our finch, a little vineyard with casitas for the guests. We learned abit more about Mendoza and winemaking from our guide, Anna;
(Did I mention that Anna is a gorgeous blonde? She was wearing a see thru top with lacy bra and stacked heels in tight jeans! She kept our guys in line, even tho they complained they couldn’t understand her English. So I translated the English! What a circus! She has friends at Lan Air so she’ll ask them about my lost journal!)
WATER in Mendoza is a right. For the last 7 years, the river has remained completely diverted to the city cisterns. One side of the dam is desert, the other a deep dangerous channel of swirling currents being diverted in two directions. In the 1450’s, the Incas brought the system of canals they learned from the Nasca peoples. In 1561, the conquerors from Chili came across the Andes. They were from La Rioja Valley in Sapin that they called Mendoza.
In the vineyards, water arrives by allocation. People create their own ponds to hold the water. Some grapes only need to be watered a little once a week. The “struggle” makes them tastier.
In the 1900’s, Italian families discovered the region east of the Andes in these enormous valleys. They brought their malbec grapes and wine making techniques and the olive branches! The original root balls of vines can be grafted onto the imported malbec branches.
At our “hotel”, the Finca Adalgesia, small batches of wine and olive oil here at the Finca Adalgisa, which is in an upscale community outside the bustle of Mendoza.
(As usual, there is no internet in the rooms – we saw signs along the road of the new conduits bringing high speed). This is a very clean place, beautiful grounds. The matriarch of the family still lives in the main house that is right in the middle of the grounds. A younger woman who is a niece is running it.
All is well with our group. We have another time out tomorrow afternoon! Left my journal on the plane here – dumb de dumb dum. I have a few stories in my ipad, but many notes on the little notepads they give out at each hotel…The journal might come back – Anna has friends who work at LAN.
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