Quick hello and photos of the wine safari

It's been a week of very slow internet, frustratingly slow, but I figured I'd upload some shots of yesterday's trip to Angulo vineyards, the most pristine vines I've seen thus far.

Immaculately straight rows, carefully cleaned pruning, clearly marked signs announcing the block's varietal, age, total number of hectares and plants per hectare. And it happened to be a perfect fall day, so the vineyards had amazing autumn colors, which contrasted brilliantly against the base of the purple Andes and bright blue sky.

I said brilliantly. You can tell I’ve been hanging with Jo, the Brit! (Jo is interning here for the week, having just completed eight weeks as a tour guide at Familia Zuccardi).

We were there for Karim to try different blocks of Cab Sav for Mariano, the owner of the vineyards. Karim is a consultant for his wines and determines when the grapes are ready for picking. We also tasted Tempranillo, Merlot and Malbec. Amazingly, the three blocks of Cab Sav all tasted differently, some spicier, some fruitier, some juicier. Even within one vineyard, the soils and rows of various blocks elicited very different characteristics.

We rode in the back of Cesar, the agronomist's, pick-up truck safari-style, amazed at the scenery and thinking we'd wake up from a dream at any second. Eddie and Jenny (from Napa) were also there, as well as Karim’s father.

It was also finally the day to pick the Malbecs for the Caymus experiment (they're shipping frozen Mendoza Malbecs to Napa and actually making the wine there), and all the Malbecs were being placed in bins packed in dry ice. Rebecca, I was instantly brought back to my Brewla Bar days! I had to warn Jo not to touch the dry ice, she had no idea!

It's been fun having her as a roommate this week, having someone to recap the things we've learned, ride to work with, walk around the vineyards with, and just have normal, non-wine, non-Spanish conversations with. A dose of normalcy in this far from normal gig. She'll be staying here until Saturday morning, then go back to Mendoza city for a week of Spanish lessons, and then off to BsAs when her boyfriend comes to visit. But she'll be back in Mendoza for a few weeks before heading back to London to start her new career as a corporate lawyer of some sort. Pshhh corporate law. She'll be back in wine country soon enough! If you only knew how many ex-lawyers turned sommelier or winemaker or vineyard owner we've met...