Monday morning brought a surprise welcome in the form of a dual wine tasting of Altocedro and Caymus. As I mentioned before, the Caymus folks were in town working on a new project importing frozen Malbec grapes to the States. Karim has been an integral part of pointing them in the right direction around town . So Joe (Caymus founder's grandson and winemaker in his own right- he's started his own label focused on Pinot- Belle Glos) and John, his partnering winemaker, showed up around 11:00am to get a tour of the warehouse as well as taste Karim's pride and joy. I tagged along the tour, taking pictures of the crew and trying to absorb as much of the industry talk as possible. The openness and willingness to share trade secrets and innovative techniques underscores the sincerity of how these guys truly want to make the best quality vino they can. During the tasting both vineyard owners asked numerous questions and seemed to equally learn new things from their counterparts. We had the privilege to taste Caymus' 2007 Special Selection Cab Sav. I don't have my tasting notes with me, but trust me when I say it may have been one of the best Cab Savs I've tasted to date. Of course, Caymus is known for their Cabs. Silky smooth tannins, no peppery finish... ripe berries. Heaven. I asked Joe what name he had planned for the American-made Malbec and he admitted he was still trying to nail one down. Being that playing with names and slogans is one of my greatest past times, I vowed to let him know if anything came to me. Emailed him a few ideas within a few hours after he left. Great way to start the week!
Monday night was the weekly wine tasting club and this week's theme was Malbec Madness. Five wines with a wide range of prices, from boxed wine ($3 USD) and Damajuana wine to about $23 USD wine. We were to guess which wines fell where on the spectrum as well as what we personally favored. Altocedro isn't commonly sold around here so Karim gave me a bottle of the Año Cero (roughly $15 USD) for the group to try as well as the remaining Gran Reserva left over from the morning's tasting with Caymus ($60 USD). I saved the Gran Reserva for a select few people to taste after the big group left. I am pretty confident and unbiased when I say the Año Cero was the highlight of the night and created a (small) buzz for the brand. Afterwards I joined the girls from Familia Zuccardi, Jo and Katie, as well as their fellow intern Gavin (from Napa) for dinner at 7 Cocinas, which is focused on local, seasonal ingredients from Argentina's 7 culinary regions. One of the best dinners thus far, in a casual relaxed atmosphere. Will definitely go back.
Tuesday I spent the majority of the day at the office uploading the past 5 days' pictures to the company's Facebook and Flickr accounts as well as adding captions and cleaning up the Facebook profile in general. Karim had acknowledged he much preferred Twitter over FB and I could do what I wanted with it. Maintaining a FB page could be a full time job!
Tuesday night I met up with Joe's sister Jenny, her boyfriend Eddie and cousin Phil, all of who I also met at Saturday night's charity event. Jenny and Phil both work at Caymus as well and Eddie at his parent's winery. They are all here looking for internships like mine since is Napa's down time. They have found two spots at Alta Vista and I'm trying to convince the third to hang with me at Altocedro. We spent over 4 hours talking, walking the city and having dinner at Anna Bistro, my personal Mendoza favorite (if you remember, where I took myself for lunch my first time here and sat outside, also took my mom on her last night here). They picked a Mendel Malbec as it is a potential employer for one of them, but I was not too impressed with the $160 peso bottle. We finally parted ways at 1:30 and I told them to meet me the next night at the Vines' weekly winemaker night.
Wednesday morning Guillermo had to make a trip down to the winery and brought me with him so I could check out places to live. During the 1 & 1/2 hour drive, he gave me a lot of insight into the exporting side of the business as well as advice for where I might work post-harvest. I furiously scribbled notes as I realized how much there is to learn. Finally got a good look at my future hometown for the next month. One plaza, one stoplight, one hostel...yep. Everything is walking distance to the winery. Sweet. We had a great lunch at the one good restaurant in town, El Cielo (where about 10 Catena Zapata winemakers and vineyard managers were enjoying a multiple course lunch with Altocedro wine, champagne and Johnny Walker). I could get used to that! After lunch I met up with Natalia, who Carolyn (my savior) introduced me to. Natalia has lived in LC for 4 years, after spending 12 years in Mendoza. She works in agro-tourism and was super helpful in showing me my potential living options. Between the hostel, a room with a family (really an aging woman and her full grown daughter) and a charming, luxurious 2-bedroom cottage a bit off the beaten path (too lonely, too expensive), I'm pulling for the hostel. I'll have my own room (with 3 bunk beds) as it's the low season, and more importantly, internet, which is all I really need. Doesn't seem anyone else is staying there besides the owner, who was not there for me to meet. There also seems to be an empty house on the winery where construction workers had been staying. Still waiting to hear back from Karim if that's another viable option for me (it would be free... but may not exactly be nice).
Made it back to Mendoza in time to catch the last half of the winemaker's night at the Vines. Jenny and her crew were there, as was Cara and Jo, from the wine tasting club. Also saw Mariela and Juliet, who I spent last Sunday with, kayaking and grilling. Was nice to see so many familiar faces! The winemaker of the night was Marcelo Pelleriti from Monteviejo and Clos de los Siete. After the lecture, Jenny, Phil, Eddie, their friend Derek (who randomly went to high school with Eddie's brother in Napa and is here coincidentally by himself) and I went to Flor de la Canela, the hole in the wall Peruvian restaurant my mom and I went her first day here. Two grande dishes of ceviche and shellfish and a round of pisco sours didn't fail to please, and for $50 pesos a person, the price was right.
Today I took charge of redesigning Altocedro's consumer-facing technical sheets. These will be handed out to custumers in wine shops around the world who are looking to learn a bit more about who Altocedro is.
Now it's time for my two Skype dates of the evening, my dad and Mack!
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