Spinning

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As in my head. I spent the day touring wineries. It's a bit different here, as you have to take the whole tour to get to the tasting room. While the tours are largely the same (as each other and as the Napa wineries I've toured) here they show you a lot more, and you actually get to see the bottles being filled and labeled.

At first I thought it was odd that a full day wine excursion here only visits two wineries and has lunch at one. I'm used to five or six being a full day. But now I understand why, and it's not just the tours.

I began the day at Bodega Lopez, where I actually got to see the crushing machines (idle now, as the harvest is in March), and the assembly line for the bottles. It was very Laverne and Shirley. If only I had a glove to put on a bottle.

Then we went to Bodega Zucchardi, the largest label (or actually, group of labels) in South America. Their primary line that is exported is the Santa Julia label.

The tastings themselves were as I expected. Four different varietals, with an explanation of how to drink it and why. It was the lunch that caught me off guard. The package said 'traditional lunch' at Zucchardi Family Bodega. I figured it would be a light brunchy type thing.

It was a five course meal, with a full glass of wine with each course. I can honestly say I didn't know there were that many ways to prepare beef. We began with empanadas (turnovers) with beef and onions, and savignon blanc (interesting choice, but it worked). Then we had morcillas which are sausage type things that were surprisingly delicious, with a barbera type meritage. Next was lomo, which was a regular steak, with cabernet. Then were beef ribs with Malbec. Finally, we had postre- literally dessert- that was this tort type cake, with late harvest chenin blanc. Oh, and then they gave us each a glass of port.

Let's re-cap: Lopez- 2 tastes (two sucked and thus were dumped). Zucchardi- 5 tastes (he accidentally poured twice for me with one of them). Lunch- 6 GLASSES. Yeah, as I said before, spinning.

Anyhow, after lunch I had my city tour. We went to this huge beautiful park that is supposedly larger than Central Park in New York. There is a man-made lake there where they hold regattas. It was a great day too. I’m a lot farther north here, and the sun was actually up high in the sky and shining down on my head. In Bariloche, it just kind of floated a ways above the northern horizon. I needed a parka and hat there, here a light jacket and a sweater are fine. All in all, the park was pretty cool. I don't remember much of the specifics, as this was after lunch.

Oh yeah, I had to wait until today to publish yesterday's blog. So read that too.

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Photos

Amy Heaven
Complete with a light to go towards

Comments

[Seana]

WOW
The park looks GORGEOUS!!!! beautiful pics! :)