April 2011
6 posts
Feffo
Shortly after midnight we rendezvoused with Brennan’s friend Feffo, at a restaurant in Lujan. His parents own a small hotel and restaurant which he does food deliveries for, as well as adorning the interior and exterior with his paintings, murals, and sculptures. Feffo was just getting off work, and I hopped into his jalopy, a thirty plus year old Citron, while Brennan followed...
Our New Friend Ale
While out commemorating our Irish heritage on St Patrick’s Day, at the only Irish Pub in Mendoza, Brennan and I made an interesting acquaintance, which would turn out to be quite fruitful. Saying the pub was filled to capacity would be a tremendous understatement. There was a mob half a block long which bulged out into the four lane street so significantly it bottlenecked traffic. ...
Hill of Seven Colors & Puente del Inca
With the house stuffed to the gills with of out of towners, touristy activities were the order of the day. We piled into two cars (Nadia’s brother, apparently quite a road dog, had driven his Camary the 600 miles from BA), and drove west into the Andes. We hit a minor snag in that all the gas stations in town were bone dry, not an unusual occurrence, but fortunately we found a petrol...
March 2011
7 posts
Full House
Let me begin by saying in this Full House scenario, as much as I would like to be the Uncle Jesse, I am more like Joey – the one who appears to belong the least, but everyone seems to be glad is there anyway.
Nadia’s brother Leanardo road tripped it into town with a Camary full of family from Buenos Aires. He brought his girlfriend Carolina, a chef who speaks Spanish, English,...
Lomo, Pizza, or Empanadas?
Lomo, pizza, or empanadas. Those are the choices offered at nearly every cafe in Argentina, invariably and without deviation. My clear favorite is the lomo. The core of the lomo is grilled flank steak, topped with cheese, ham, lettuce, tomato, and a fried egg, sandwiched in pan Arabe, which is similar to cibbata bread. The one area restaurants have some freedom to make the sandwich their own,...
Dinner with the Todds
There’s a young vineyard here, two and a half years old, which Brennan sourced last year at the tender age of 18 months. Most vineyards don’t come online till Year 3. The vineyard is owned by a jet setting American couple, currently based in South Africa, involved in the fast paced world of global finance, Armand and Wendy Todd. The vineyard is planted to a majority of Malbec—the Pride of...
Castro Bodega in Vista Flores
Brennan, his girlfriend Nadia, I, and Carucha the puppy piled into Brennan’s VW Gol, and headed to Vista Flores. As we drove south, I was entertained by the distant snow capped peaks, shrouded in cotton candy clouds. At times it was actually quite difficult to tell if I was looking at a cloud, or a mountain poking its glaciated head through, floating like an Andean Olympus. It became...
The Graciano Vineyard in Capiz
Brennan had a tip from an American friend of his down here, Peter, about a vineyard of Graciano in a small town called Capiz, an hour or so south of Mendoza. Peter had purchased the fruit in the past, but is getting out of the wine game in Argentina, and passing along his connections to friends. The directions we had to get there were lacking: drive through Tunuyan, over the...
Carnivale in Buenos Aires
I arrived back at my hostel, after covering a huge amount of Buenos Aires on foot, to find the street in front closed to traffic. It is a major street, Avenida de Mayo, which runs from the Plaza de Mayo, where Presidential offices are located, as well as Evita’s famed balcony, to Plaza de Congressa where the country’s Washington DC-inspired capitol dome sits. There was a parade of...
January 2010
15 posts
Catrala & Matetic Wineries
January 19, 2010
We continued our exploration of organic Casablanca wineries with a morning visit to Catrala Winery and its owner Felipe Rodriguez. Felipe has a real belief in doing things naturally and creating ecosystems in his vineyard, so his resulting wines will be a true reflection of his beautifully secluded property. He has 200 acres growing Sav Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot noir,...
Microbrews & Organic Wines
January 18, 2010
The day started with a visit to Kross Brewery, one of the first microbreweries in Chile, which has spawned 40 or so microbrew competitors in the last 5 years. Kross itself in only 7 years old. We met with its Danish/German co-owner Asbjorn Gerlach, still wearing his rubber boots. He is a master brewer, educated in Germany. When asked how he ended up in Chile he just waved his...
Election Day Chile 2010
January 17 2010
Today is presidential election day in Chile. Voting is mandatory in Chile, with fines of around $200 if you don’t do your civic duty. Most places are closed to allow citizens to visit the polls. Bars close and alcohol sales stop at midnight the night before; Chileans need to be fresh and clear headed. Claudia had to vote in the morning, but not too early because if you...
Santiago Day 5 (1/16/2010)
So today is our free day, and I was able to get out of bed before 11, quite a feat for not hitting the sack till 5am. Sam wanted to buy some Cuban cigars, so he Chris and I went to check out La Casa del Habano. I picked up a Cohiba, Montecristo and a H. Upman – the Kennedy cigar. JFK loved them, and put in an order for 1,000 boxes of them shortly before he signed the trade embargo with Cuba. ...
Santiago Day 4 (1/15/2010)
It’s kind of a long one…
The 1st event of the day was with the export manager for Emiliana Winery, Chile’s largest organic wine producer. They are certified organic, biodynamic, and are carbon neutral, in both production and shipping. He was very knowledgeable on natural wine production, having come from a grape growing family, and very intelligent on how to market organic wines. ...
Santiago Day 3 (1/14/2010)
The 1st meeting of the day was with the export director from Catel Pisco. Pisco is a Chilean brandy, made from a variety of muscat grapes grown in the northern Chile regions of Atacama and Coquimbo. Catel is a cooperative of growers and pisco producers with a 60% market share here, little pisco is exported. The grapes are made into wine, distilled to 63%, then cut with pure water to 40%, after...
Santiago Day 2 (1/13/2010)
January 13, 2010
Got the wake up call at 7:45, and watched MTV’s Chilean Morning video mix, They played Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, a somewhat disturbing video, Jonas Brothers, and some Spanish language rock. Unfortunately no Akon (which was blasting out of every stereo in Mendoza). The Seawolf group gathered up at 8:30 in the lobby, and I met Claudia, our short, bubbly, high energy Chilean guide,...
Santiago Day 1 (1/12/2010)
The bus from Mendoza got in a little late, 4:15 instead of 2:30. I caught a cab from the bus terminal, all the way across town to Hotel Atton el Bosque. Apparently there are an odd number of males, in the group, and I got a single room, instead of the double I was expecting. The group had already headed out on their city scavenger hunt, so I decided to check out the city on my own. Hopped the...