Advertisement
Published: December 5th 2007
One of our highlights in Bolivia was the country's wine making capital, Tarija. Tarija was a beautiful town set among high rolling hills. We both agreed that the people in Tarija were some of the nicest and most accommadating in all of South America (this could be due to all the wine drinking that was going on).
Our time in Tarija was spent trying a bunch of different wines and touring some vineyards. We took a tour to three different bodegas (vineyards). Honestly, the tour would have severely disappointed us if we hadn't gotten completely sauced and had a lot of fun interacting with the locals. The only thing we learned on the tour was that Bolivian wine is great and the Bolivian wine makers are incredibly friendly.
Our first stop on the tour was La Concepcion, an award-winning bodega. Because of the language barrier, we never did figure out if you could buy their wine at home, but we suggest trying. The vineyard is the highest in the world, and their Cepas de Altura has won international awards.
The second vineyard we visited was an artesanal vineyard. It was small and family run. And its barn doubled
as the town's only discotec. After we wandered around the place and turned down multiple offers to dance (from drunken locals at four in the afternoon), the owner wanted to share some of his wine. Our tour consisted of the two of us, a mother and daughter and the tour guide. The owner (unfortunately we can't remember his name) wanted us to participate in an un-corking ceremony of a jug of wine. Brett was the lucky winner on this one. The owner instructed Brett to give three toasts: one for himself, one for the vineyard, and one for our group. Brett then (very dramatically) had to remove the cork from the jug. Then we all got to join in on the fun as we passed around a 2 meter straw which we each had to drink the length of to make the toasts come true.
Our tour group is having a pretty good time at this point. But, not as much fun as a drunk 60 year old woman. The mother in our group started making proclamations that Brett and Sarah need to get married. This translates to 'brett and sarah are getting married.´ Before we could say ¨um
what?¨, the owner hollars for another bottle to celebrate. Now, we're not two people to ever turn down a free bottle of vino. The owner insists that we finish the bottle, while also promising Brett that our first born son has a job at his vineyard.
Now that we were all sufficiently buzzed (thankfully, our driver was not) we headed off to our third and final vineyard, Casa Viejo. It was also a small, family run vineyard, that still does foot stamping of the grapes. We tried a variety of wines from Casa Viejo, ranging from a sweet honey wine to a smokey cabernet, all being force-fed to us by a group of workers. And as if the day couldn't get any better, a bottle to take home cost all of 15 bolivianos (less than 2 bucks).
Tarija was great and our day touring the bodegas was probably one of the most memorable on our whole trip. It was such an honor to share a glass (well, many glasses) with some incredibly friendly bolivians.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0403s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Pex Sherpa
non-member comment
wine is good for the soul
Good story. It took me until I was 30 to apreciate good wine. I'm glad you're comming around so quickly.