Another Day in the Vineyards (Tues 3/23)

 
Stats:
- 4 nice wine tastings
- 1 great lunch (prepared by a vegetarian)
- Aced on our "A Plan" for dinner
 
Today we took another wine tour.  Again, the van was on time.  This time, our fellow tasters were from the U.S. and Italy.  The first winery was Terrazas.  They did a great tour and even talked about the difference between American and French Oak.  It all has to do with the speed at which the trees grow.  French Oak grows slower, giving the wood smaller pores.  This means the barrels are slower to impart the flavors into the wine and the barrels can be used a bit longer (one more year I think).  So, you can guess the American story --- trees grow faster, pores are bigger, flavors are imparted more quickly, and are used one year less than the French barrel.  Now, pricing --- the American barrels are much lower priced.  I always throught the Americans were quicker than the French.  Interesting to learn that our trees are quicker too!
 
Anyway, at Terrazas, the tour guide presented the wines and the "essences" of the wine.  For example, if a wine had aromas of vanilla and caramel, she had vanilla beans in a glass and caramels in another glass.  We could compare the wine to the actual things.  In some cases, she had oils of essence (for prunes, pears, rose, etc).  It was pretty interesting to smell the various scents and compare them to the wine.  It was also interesting to experience how the smells changed over the time and we tried more wines.
 
Our second stop was at Renacer.  In Spanish, "renacer" means to be reborn.  Again, we had a very interesting approach to the tasting.  We were given pours of 3 different malbecs --- one from a low elevation, one from 100 meters higher, and another from still 100 meters higher.  We were able to taste the differences.  Then, we were given a measuring cup and allowed to "blend" the three "component" malbecs to create a final product.  It was very interesting to smell and taste the difference of altitude on the same grape.  We both preferred the wine from the highest elevation and Arn declared any blend with the lowest elevation wine to be inferior.  We also tasted other wines from Renacer.  They are working with a winery in Italy (one that we quite like - Allegrini) to produce an Amarone style wine.  To make this type of wine, the grapes are actually dried in the sun before the wine making process begins.  In Italy, they dry 100% of the grapes.  Here, they are drying 20%.  The grapes are tested during the drying process for sugar content.  When they hit the right level, production begins.
 
The third vineyard was Maipul.  They were in the midst of bottling.  The "bottling truck" is rented and parked outside.  The wine was pumped through a hose to the bottling truck.  It was interesting to watch.  We were surprised by how the filled bottles were stacked on pallets and wrapped in plastic wrap.  We quickly calculated the weight and it did not seem like the right warehousing strategy.  We had lunch at Maipul.  Lunch needs two statements to summarize it.  First, the meat was dreadful --- over cooked to leather.  There was a pork salad.  The pork was like leather.  The entree included a steak.  It was also, cooked to leather on everyone´s plate but one.  Now, everything but the meat was totally awesome.  The chilled tomato and watermelon soup, the beet and goat cheese salad, the asian slaw, the roasted vegtables, and the dessert were all fantastic.  So, I think the chef doesn´t eat meat.  I have no other explanation for how a kitchen does such a beautiful job with fruits, vegatables and grains and misses it so badly on meat. 
 
Our last wine stop was at Alta Vista.  This was an all Malbec stop.  The tour was interesting as we saw a winery that stores wine in concrete tanks.  They don´t use metal or stainless tanks.  They are concrete lined with epoxy.  While this seems pretty old school, it sounds like places are actually building new set ups like this.  Our day ended with a glass of champagne. 
 
Having had a big lunch, we wanted a "little something" for dinner.  We headed to a wine bar with a tapas menu.  We figured we could get a couple of small plates and call it good.  Well, it could have been good, but we were aced.  They were closed for a private party.  So, we strolled the streets looking for "Plan B".  We picked a place based on what we saw on people´s plates and we were duped.  Arn said, "You know, on the Carretera Austral, we would have thought this meal was great".  Still, I don´t expect to cut into a piece of beef in Argentina and find myself asking, "Really, this is beef?  It looks more like a pork chop".