Friday

Over the past three days I have been on three successive wine tours, (the first tour being three wineries: Weinert, Altavista, a third smaller one whose name escapes me) of average quality but including a superb meal.

The second tour employed the same shitty practice as the first by serving visitors forgettable entry level wines. It would have been nice to try some of the better quality wines because, based on the tastings, I didn't feel that their top wines were worth the money. Of the two tours I visited, the second had the most intriguing wine offered for tasting: a nicely oaked Syrah from a small family winery called Don Arturo. For 18 pesos (6 bucks) it was a fantastic deal. Easily on par with 20-30 dollar wines at the LCBO.

The second tour (featuring two wineries) also had an edge over the first with my befriending Carolina, the tour´s guide. She wasn´t having a great day with her English and to compound problems, both vineyards lacked an English speaking conductor, leaving Carolina to translate. After a fifteen minute struggle to translate the champagne method of producing sparkling wine I offered my help, since I had read and studied this in my class. From that point on we shared the duty of English tour guide for three young American backpackers who didn´t have the first clue about wine but were very eager and excited to learn.

It was after leaving the first winery that something magic happened. I asked Carolina if she knew of a winery called Enrique Foster, and she was quite impressed that a tourist would know this obscure vineyard and in fact her cousin is an administrator there. The winery didn´t offer tours normally, but Carolina offered to go with me and have a private tour. I couldn´t believe my ears. I waited with bated breath untill the morning... I´ll describe my Enrique Foster experience in a separate post.

The night was a ton of fun with some great wine, Asado (Agentine barbeque) and more wine.