Cafayata: the wine region!

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I have made it to the most western region of Argentina that I plan to visit: Cafayate, the northern wine region!

Before sampling the regional wine I took a sunrise drive to Quebrada de las Flechas which is an impressive serious of mountains in the Parque Nacional Cardones. You can drive right through these jagged rock formations. Early morning is the perfect time to see them with the light shining at an angle.

This region of Argentina’s wine making is known for Malbec (both red and white), high altitude champagne as well as a variety of Cabernets. I had a one on one tour with a winemaker who focused on the high altititue champagne. He follows the same process created by Dom Perignon in France. He shared that this region is almost a desert - warm during the day and cool at night. This along with very little rain fall allows the winemakers to have a greater control over their grapes. In some regions of the world the vintage is important because each year can be quite different depending on conditions. But here, the wine is almost identical from one year to the next. The winemaker is from Norway and his wife is from Argentina. They along with their 4 adult children have been making wine for over 30 years.

An interesting thing I realized while in this area is that while it is over 1500 miles west of Rio it is on the same time zone. The sun usually sets around 6pm in Rio, but it doesn’t set until almost 8:30pm here. It was a welcomed lengthening of the day.

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Comments

[Beth]

Looks beautiful! I am sure you have Norway tips from the wine maker. Take care

[Julia Foster]

Wonderful!
Malbec is one of Thomas’ favs. Beautiful pics!