Argentina - Texas Wine Lover

Visiting Iguazú Falls

April 9, 2013 by Jeff Leave a Comment

I had previously posted about our three day trip to Mendoza which was fantastic. On day 1, I also mentioned briefly about Buenos Aires where you have to fly into in order to get to Mendoza from the United States. After Mendoza on Friday, Gloria and I took a flight connecting via Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazú, Argentina. This is the closest airport and city to Iguazú Falls on the Argentine side. We were met at the airport by a private driver we had previously made plans with to take us anywhere we needed to go for the three days we were going to be in Puerto Iguazú.

Puerto Iguazu Airport

On the way to the town of Puerto Iguazú we passed by the Iguazú National Park which is the entrance to the falls on the Argentine side. A little explanation of the falls is probably in order now. The waterfalls come from the Iguazú River which divides Brazil and Argentina. About 20% of the falls are on the Brazilian side and 80% are on the Argentine side. Even though most of the falls are in Argentina, the best panoramic view is seen from Brazil. The falls are really approximately 275 falls divided among a 1.7 mile edge. The highest fall is 269 feet high when compared to Niagara Falls is only 165 feet high. Even the United States’ First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is said to have exclaimed when she saw Iguazú Falls, “Poor Niagara.”

We did a lot of research before our trip and learned if you want to see everything, you only need to spend about half a day in Brazil and a day or two in Argentina. The problem with being a United States citizen is even though you would only spend half a day in Brazil, you still need to get a Visa for your passport. Unfortunately the cost for a Visa is $160 and you have to go to your local Brazilian Consulate to get it. We went back and forth trying to decide to spend the money and go through the trouble of getting it, but finally decided if we were going all that way and were standing only on the Argentine side wishing at that point we were on the Brazilian side, we would be kicking ourselves. So we went through the extra effort and got Visas.

We checked into our small hotel which was located in the town of Puerto Iguazú because we wanted walking access to the town which would allow us to do something at night. We went walking to find downtown and even after asking some locals (it’s a good thing Gloria’s native language is Spanish), we were still wondering where downtown was. We kept looking for something that appeared to be a downtown but could not find anything along the main road. There were also a lot of stores closed.

Iguazu Cheap Wine

Now since this is a wine blog, I’ll throw some wine into this post to make it relevant. During our walk along the street we decided to stop in a supermarket to see what was available. They had a wine section and here’s a photo of some magnums which were for sale. You probably can’t read the price, but it is 16.50 pesos. Roughly converted to U.S dollars that is $3.30. That’s right, $3.30 for a magnum of wine. And you thought Two Buck Chuck was a bargain. We should have bought a bottle just to see if it was any good.

We finally found downtown which turned out to be down a side road off the main road and had dinner at an outdoor cafe. We learned why a lot of stores had been closed and there were not many people around; the town takes a siesta from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. After 5:00pm the town awoke and there were suddenly lots of people around. I had my first Caipirinha which is Brazil’s national cocktail and it was very good. Since we had been awake since 4 a.m. to catch our flight out of Mendoza, we decided to call it an early evening.

The next morning we were picked up by our driver to go to the Brazilian side of the falls which is located in Iguaçu National Park. It turned out the border crossing was just a few minutes’ drive from town and we were through customs in a short time. We arrived at the park 30 minutes before they opened and the driver recommended we visit the bird park across the street called Parque Das Aves while we waited. It was a nice bird park and there were many types of birds commonly found in the jungle. I failed to mention the parks in Brazil and Argentina are primarily in a jungle.

Iguazu Falls

One of the nice things about the Iguaçu National Park is that you can order your tickets online prior to your visit using a credit card. This avoids having to convert currency and actually avoids the long ticket line. After a bus ride with a few stops we arrived at the first location where you can see the falls. Upon our first partial view of the falls, I know my mouth just dropped. It was an incredible sight with the many falls in the distance. I have seen Niagara Falls many times and there was no comparison. Everybody was trying to get to the front of the fence so they could have their photo taken with the falls in the background. For the most part during the visit, people were very kind and patient except for a few times when some people thought they were too important. There was the typical tourist official photographers and upon watching them, there did not seem a way to get a photo taken without people between you and the falls. We walked down a path to the right and that was when we found another vantage point of the falls. This time however there was a walkway built out from the edge of the cliff where people could venture down to do kayaking or in our case, we decided to have another official photographer take our photo with definitely nobody behind us.

After our photo, we followed the path along the cliff and except for an occasional tree which we wish wasn’t there, any view was incredible. Getting a Visa for Brazil was definitely a wise choice! At the end of the path was the largest and highest waterfall, Garganta del Diablo (the Devil’s Throat), which is U-shaped. A walkway was built over the river where you could walk close to the falls and yes, get wet. We had purchased plastic raincoats which did an adequate job to keep us and our photography equipment dry.

We did end up spending a total of 3.5 hours in the Brazilian park and it was time to meet our driver to go back to the Argentine side. Now that we knew what the falls looked like in their entirety, it was going to be interesting to see how they looked from Argentina. We got to the border crossing and that’s when we hit our first stumble of the day.

When we flew into Buenos Aires from the United States, we had to pay a reciprocity fee, basically a Visa, and have a receipt for payment to show customs when we arrived into Argentina. We gave no thought that going to the Brazilian side and then back into Argentina we would need this same receipt. Uh oh! After some nervous discussions with the custom authorities, I realized I had kept a PDF file copy of my receipt in Dropbox on my smartphone. They were able to see that and from there eventually look up our two receipts in the computer. Now they probably could have done that from the beginning but they probably want to make tourists sweat. Just kidding! Anyway, we eventually got our passports back and were on our way to the Iguazú National Park.

Our driver dropped us off at the park where we had planned on taking a speedboat ride up the river and then to the base of the falls. There were warnings you would get soaked on the boat so we were prepared. We decided if we were going to get soaked, we would end the day that way and go back to see the rest of the park the next day. There are two speedboat rides available. The first is the Great Adventure which you first ride through the jungle on a large truck and then take the boat down the Iguazú River, through some rapids, and then arrive at the waterfalls. The second is the Nautical Adventure which is just a speedboat and is the same as the end of the Great Adventure ride when it arrives at the waterfalls. We decided to go all the way and take the Great Adventure.

Iguazú National Park is primarily an ecological park compared to the Brazilian park and it is surrounded by jungles. Fauna and animals are commonly one of the reasons people visit the park besides seeing Iguazú Falls. We soon learned the park entrance is a good walking distance to anything noteworthy so luckily we were in good walking shape. We had to walk to the center of the park to get tickets for the boat ride if we were going to pay by credit card. We caught the jungle truck and rode through the jungle with the tour guide pointing out various things. The river then came into view and we left the truck and entered the speedboat. We were given very large dry bags in which we could store anything we didn’t want to get wet. Fortunately the bag was big enough to hold a backpack, shoes, etc.

Iguazu Falls

We rode through the rapids bouncing a little bit but since the front of the boat rose out of the water, you could only see out the sides. Fortunately we were sitting on the right (okay, starboard) side of the boat and there are a few falls on the Argentina side which we could see during the ride. We then got to the base of one fall and started getting wet while people cheered. The driver brought the boat back around for a second time for the same experience. This wasn’t the “get completely soaked” part so the boat went to sit in the middle of the river for a while. We were told to put away our cameras because we were now going to get really wet. Unfortunately at this time we were facing into the sun which had come out from behind the clouds and combined with the mist of the falls, it was very difficult to see the falls. When the boat was brought to the base of another fall for the “soaking” part, I found it impossible to keep my eyes open with the blinding sun and water. And oh yes, we got soaked! The rest of the group was cheering wildly and that probably urged on the driver because we went around for another time under the falls. The boat then turned around and headed to shore where we docked and disembarked.

Iguazu Falls

After turning in our life vests and dry bags and getting dressed again, we started the hike up the hill to the top of the park. Along the way we could visit a few waterfalls and see them up close. After reaching the top, it was getting near closing time for the park and we headed toward the exit, again with a long walk. Our driver had not yet arrived at our predetermined time but it was just a short wait and he was there.

We cleaned up at the hotel and then tried to decide on where to eat. We had been so used to the fine dining experiences in Mendoza that we tried to find the closest thing to that in Puerto Iguazú. Some recommendations from locals led us to Aqva Restaurant which turned out to be a very good choice with the wine selection and cuisine.

Sunday came and our driver picked us up for the rest of the Argentine Iguazú National Park. There are primarily three paths in the park to different sets of falls. First was a trip to the largest waterfall Garganta del Diablo to see how it looked from the Argentine side. A train takes you to the waterfall. We stood in line for the train but filled up before we could get on. It is a 1.2km trip to the Garganta station and trains come every 20 minutes. There is a walking path next to the railroad track and after doing some calculations, we decided to make the trek ourselves. We passed the train returning to the first station during our walk and we hoped we could beat it on its return trip. It turned out to be a 25 minute walk to the Garganta station for us and we actually beat the train returning. It’s a good thing too. From the station to the viewing platform of Garganta del Diablo is a footbridge over the river that is an unbelievable 1,100 meter/.7 miles long. People from the train before us were returning from the falls and by the time we got to the magnificent view from the platform, there were not many people there. On our return trip on the footbridge, the train we would have been on had arrived and people were coming which would have made the viewing area more crowded. It was a good choice to make the walk to the falls but there was no way we were walking back!

Iguazu Falls

Next up was the Upper Circuit trail which has the best views for the majority of the falls on the Argentine side. The trail let us walk right at the top of the falls. We then went to the Lower Circuit trail which let us view the last few falls. It had been a long day of walking but it was definitely worth it.

Combining the views from the Argentine side along with what we had seen from the Brazilian side made for an unforgettable experience at Iguazú Falls, one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature.

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Filed Under: Trips Tagged With: Argentina, Brazil, Iguazu, Iguazú Falls, Niagara Falls, Puerto Iguazú, Waterfalls

Mendoza – Day 3

March 26, 2013 by Jeff 1 Comment

Our final day of three days in Mendoza was to travel farther from Mendoza city to the Uco Valley which was about 90 minutes away. Along the way our guide, Ivana Basualdo, taught us what a mate was, which is a very popular drink in Argentina. The drink is similar to tea with different types of herbs instead of tea bags. It is brewed in a special cup which comes in all kinds of designs. In fact after learning about mate we ended up seeing many stores which had mate cups. After pouring hot water in the cup, the herbs are stirred with a special straw which has a strainer on the bottom. It is through this straw which you drink the mate. It is very common to share a cup of mate with close friends and family members by passing around the cup. I believe the mate was a big hit because at least two couples ended up buying one later in Mendoza city.

San Polo Winery

The first winery we visited was San Polo Winery. It is located in La Consulta which is a small sub-region in the southern Uco Valley and is 1002 meters above sea level. We were greeted by export manager Juan Del Bono who would be our guide while visiting. We learned the winery was the third oldest in Uco Valley and the building was built in 1902. They also create wine in the traditional style.

Juan Del Bono of San Polo

We toured the winery’s crush facility complete with two grape crushers and then basket presses with no bladders but a large hydraulic press which presses the grapes from above. Concrete tanks are also used at San Polo Winery and the ones we looked at were 15,000 liter tanks. We visited the barrel rooms which were below and by other concrete tanks. The barrel rooms were in fact originally huge concrete tanks. We learned that San Polo exports to 25 different countries.

Ian and Ryan get pressed

The winery has a capacity to produce five million liters of wine and currently produces three million. They get grapes from their five different vineyards including the one at the winery. All five vineyards comprise 180 hectares of land.

Hand labeling at San Polo which is also done at most other wineries

After the tour we visited the tasting room and all sat around a table. We then tasted these San Polo Winery wines:

2012 Torrontés
2011 Malbec unoaked named Piuquenes
2011 Cabernet Sauvignon from their reserva line. The wine was aged 6 months in French and American oak.
2011 Auka wine which was 60% Malbec and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon. It was aged 6 months in barrel.
2010 Alphonso which is a Gran Reserva Malbec. It was aged 12 months in barrel. We learned the difference between Reserva and Gran Reserva is Gran Reserva is aged longer in oak.
2009 Night Harvest which is a 60% Malbec, 20% Merlot, and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. It was aged 18-24 months in oak.

It was a wonderful tasting and we all enjoyed our visit to San Polo Winery.

Canopies over vineyard

Next was a visit to a modern winery in Mendoza called Salentein located in the province of Tupungato. Let me just spoil the ending and say this is the most impressive winery I have ever visited. It looks like a nice building on the outside but the inside of the winery is just incredible. We went to the first building which houses a restaurant and art gallery. The group had lunch at the restaurant which again was fine dining.

These are the courses and paired wines:

Grilled provolone paired with 2011 Salentein Chardonnay
A large ribeye steak paired with 2011 Salentein Malbec

Salentein vineyard on the way to the winery

It was then time to join up with a group for a tour of the winery. Behind the first building are acres of vineyards and then the winery building. We learned from the guide that Salentein owns three wineries. One in fact was across the road from where we were and then there is one more in another location. We passed a Salentein Fruit plant earlier on the way to the winery so the company handles different produces.

Looking down at barrel room of Salentein

Upon entering the winery we went past the showcase at the entry and visited the tank room. I could not begin to count how many stainless steel tanks there were because they were all aligned in a circular pattern around the huge room. In the middle of the room was a railing surrounding a large hole which while looking down you could see the lower floor. The first thing noticeable on the lower floor was a grand piano and then the start of a circular pattern of oak barrels leading to stacks of barrels along the sides of the walls.

Large barrels at Salentein

Next to the tanks on the top level was a room with large barrels which are used seven times and between each use the barrels are sanded down inside to reach fresh oak. We walked down the stairs to the lower level which we had seen from above. We learned Salentein uses approximately 4,000 barrels as the number varies between the wines they make. Overall, just the barrel room itself was so impressive in size and barrels that no photo can do it justice. The barrels were stacked along the wall and then there were a number of levels leading down to the very lower floor, much like a sunken floor. Each level was circled by wine barrels. The whole setting was just an incredible view.

Barrel room at Salentein

We then prepared to do a tasting at the winery. On the same level as the barrel room there are two tasting rooms next to a large conference room. We looked first at the large room which contained photography equipment and a few people. Ryan and Ian first went in there and surprisingly met the owner of Salentein who occasionally stops by the winery. The Dutch owner of Salentein is Meindert Pon. His brother Ben Pon owns Bernardus Winery in California. Later when the tour guide heard the owner was there, he was surprised and made the comment that he has worked there for two months and still hasn’t met the owner.

Back in the tasting room, we tasted a 2011 Pinot Noir and 2011 Merlot. These wines on top of the 2011 Salentein Chardonnay and 2011 Salentein Malbec we had at lunch gave us a great tasting of the wines which Salentein can produce.

On the way out of the winery, we visited the art gallery in the front. There was an art store on the opposite side but I did not get a chance to see what they were selling.

We drove back to Mendoza city and prepared for the most incredible dinner most of us has ever had. I have seen many shows like Top Chef with fine dining but have not had the chance to experience many. One was actually the lunch at Ruca Malén Winery two days prior but the dinner this night took top honors. We were supposed to have dinner at the home of Chef Pablo Ranea and Alejandro Cohen, but Alejandro was feeling under the weather so Chef Pablo Ranea prepared and served the same meal at their restaurant Azafran instead.

Jerry Levy, Chef Pablo Ranea, Ian Eastveld

We all sat in the wine room around a round table among all the wine selections on the walls. The restaurant does not have a wine list so people come in to select their wine from the shelves.

The meal “outside” of the restaurant Azafran is called the PIRCA Food & Wine experience. The dinner started at 8:30pm and finished at 12:30am. That’s four hours for dinner. It could easily have gone longer but since Gloria and I had to catch a very early flight, the group decided against a break before dessert and go right to dessert.

Stuffed olives hanging from miniature olive tree

The dinner was a six course wine paired meal which included the most amazing food:

Welcome – Green apple and celery vodkatini. This drink went down so easy and was delicious.
Crispy stuffed olives with goat cheese paired with 2012 Mariflor Sauvignon Blanc from Rolland Wines. The presentation was amazing. Out came little bonsai olive trees and each stuffed olive hung on a branch. It was easy to enjoy multiple stuffed olives.
Mussels in tomato consome on top of seaweed millefuille and olive powder paired with 2012 Agua de Roca Montesco Sauvignon Blanc from Passionate Wines. It was another amazing presentation with a rock set upon a slate dinner plate. On top of the rock was the layered seaweed millefuille and mussel on top.
Sweetbreads with “nisperos” chutney, Caesar salad, and garlic chips paired with 2012 Laborum Torrontés from El Porvenir de los Andes
One side seared ahi tuna with grilled watermelon and soy reduction, salmon sashimi with guacamole and passion fruit paired with 2011 Zorzal Gran Terroir from Zorzal. The salmon and guacamole was presented in a can similar to the kind from which you buy sardines. We weren’t sure at first if we had to pop the lid but it was just resting on top. It was another amazing course.
Duck magret with quince, sautee vegetables, beet and raspeberry sauce paired with two wines: 2011 Enamore from Renacer and 2004 Colección Perdriel Merlot from Norton.
Dessert consisted of two items: Grape’s “Arrope” Cheesecake paired with Malamado Viognier from Zuccardi, and Amarula dn dulce de leche cake with raspberries and coffee paired with Antares Porter Beer. Yes, the final dessert was paired with a beer and it went amazingly well with the cake.

Mussel on top of seaweed millefuille

Seared ahi tuna with salmon sashimi with guacamole in can

This was easily the best fine dining meal I have ever had and Chef Pablo Ranea had done a fabulous job. We also learned from Chef Pablo during the meal that 90% of the Torrontés in Argentina is made in Salta.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, when you are with two chefs/sommeliers like Ryan Levy and Ian Eastveld, you eat the best food and drink the best wine. The dinner was the perfect ending to a wonderful trip. We had an unbelievable time with our group in Mendoza and would like to thank Ryan, Ian, Ivana, and all others involved for an experience we will never forget.

Filed Under: Trips Tagged With: Argentina, Fine Dining, Malbec, Mendoza, Salentein, San Polo, Vineyard

Mendoza – Day 2

March 24, 2013 by Jeff 8 Comments

Our first day in Mendoza was full and our second day was no exception. Instead of visiting different wineries, we were going to spend the entire day at the Cecchin Family Vineyard where The NICE Winery makes their Malbec and Demi-Sec Sparkling wine. We were to do harvesting and blending to determine what would comprise their 2011 Malbec.

Cecchin Family Winery

We arrived at Cecchin Family Vineyard with large vineyards in the front before we reached the winery. We met owner and winemaker Alberto Cecchin who also has a house on the property among the vineyards. In fact we all learned that Alberto was actually born in a house on the property. That house has been renovated into a guesthouse. Our guide for the day was Mario Lazzaro who is the winery’s export manager and also helps translate since Alberto Cecchin only speaks Spanish.

All the growing at Cecchin including non-grape growing such as olives and other fruit and vegetables is done organically. Trees are planted among the vineyard which helps keep the produce grown organically. They also make their wines organically with no sulfites added.

We took a quick tour of the outside of the winery. A Muscat de Alexandria (Moscatel de Alejandría) grapes canopy overhead was nice to walk under and we were also able to taste the hanging grapes. These are the same grapes used to make The NICE Winery’s Demi-Sec Sparkling Wine.

Cecchin Family Vineyard has vines from 1923 and had another big planting in 1954. They are always replanting vines though. The older vines produce fewer clusters of grapes but the quality is better because the yield per plant is lower. Ryan said the current yield is about one bottle of wine per plant. The rows are planted close to each other so there is no room for a tractor between the rows. Instead they still do plowing with horses. The farm is organic and sustainable with everything tilled back into the soil. The winery uses grapes from 77 hectares of vineyards. All the Malbec used though is at the winery location and is in 11 hectares. Cecchin Family Vineyard also chooses to do their irrigation using traditional flood irrigation.

Don Carlos and Alberto Cecchin

The original plan was to harvest in the morning but since it was a cloudy day and the weather was predicted to get warmer later in the day, the decision was made to blend first and harvest later when it was warmer. Before blending we met winemaker and enologist Don Carlos who helped Ryan and Ian and the group during the blending. The idea for blending is to select the barrels to use along with any tank wine including percentages of all to make the finished wine. Ryan and Ian had visited the winery the day before so they had already narrowed down the barrels to select from for blending.

There were two choices for a tank base which is used approximately 20% in the final blend. The first tank was 100% Malbec and the second was an 80% Malbec and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. Ryan and Ian had narrowed down the Malbec barrels to 6 bottles which represented 6 groups of 10 barrels each. They end up using about 60 barrels which produces around 1,500 cases of wine.

Starting the blending

We all sat around a large table and started the blending by first tasting the 2009 NICE Winery Malbec Reserve so we would know what they were trying to accomplish. We also tasted the 2010 NICE Winery Malbec Reserve that Ryan & Ian had blended the prior year, but has not been released. We then tasted the two tank samples. Speaking of tanks, Cecchin Family Vineyard uses concrete tanks like a lot of the older wineries do. We were instructed to provide tasting notes for each tank sample. We then tasted the barrel wine samples 1 to 6 and tasting notes were taken again. Finally a Syrah was tasted to help determine if they wanted to blend a little into the Malbec. Ryan and Ian decided to blend together barrel samples 1 to 6 and then to compare against the base tank samples.

It was time for lunch and since a lot of Malbec had been tasted, it was decided to give our palates a rest and enjoy lunch. Cecchin Family Vineyard has a restaurant on site which is literally in the vineyard and under a walnut tree called La Sombra at Cecchin. The lunch was a traditional Mendocino lunch. What an incredible experience to eat outside in the vineyard. People also had fun picking walnuts from the tree to eat. There are many olive trees among the vineyard and different olives were provided to enjoy before lunch.

Lunch in the vineyard

The first course we had started with a wine made from 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pedro Ximénez. This was a new white grape to us but the blend was delicious. We learned that the wine Don PX is made with Pedro Ximénez. The wine was paired with tomatican which is a ground tomato and vegetable appetizer made entirely from ingredients grown on the property.

The second course was a beef dish made with Muscat de Alexandria. This course was paired with a 100% Carignan wine.

The 2012 Demi-Sec was provided as the dessert wine. We learned the wine is made with only one fermentation under pressure and no addition of yeast and sugar unlike a lot of sparkling wines. Cecchin has been making their Demi-Sec Asti-style since 2006 from the Muscat de Alexandria grape. In 2012, residual sugar was 43 grams per liter and alcohol is 12.6%. We also learned there is no sugar or yeast added which eliminates headaches, so drink up! The wine was paired with pears cooked in Carignan wine along with mascarpone.

It was another fantastic meal and we could get used to this style of eating!

Alberto Cecchin shows how to harvest

The weather had not warmed up as expected but we decided to work off our lunch and harvest some Malbec grapes. All of us grabbed a bin, were given shears to cut the grape clusters, and we went to work. Everyone would eventually slow down and get tired of bending over to harvest the grapes so each would head back to where the trailer was waiting for the bins. As payment for our work, we each received a collectable coin from Cecchin Family Vineyard.

After harvesting we had to see the tall vines which we had seen in a photo at The NICE Winery. Malbec vines don’t grow tall compared to Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfindel, and certainly not as tall as the Criolla grapes grown on the property. These grapes are used for making grape juice concentrate and they are large grapes. That helps explain why the vines are so tall. They easily were 6 to 7 feet tall and were planted in the 1960′s. The photo we had seen at The NICE Winery was taken during the winter but this time large grape clusters were hanging from the vines which made the foliage even more impressive. We all enjoyed trying to find the tallest vines from which to have photos taken.

Jeff and Gloria in the tall vines. Yes those are vines, not trees.

When we were finished taking photos we headed back to the winery to do some more blending. On the way back we walked by our dinner being cooked by men dressed in Argentine Gaucho attire, which was to be an asado dinner. Asado is traditional barbecue which is cooked on a grill or in our case over an open fire. The smell of the meats cooking was intense and we were able to taste some sausage.

Cooking the asado dinner

We then tried different blending variations to pinpoint which blend would provide the best wine. We were told to realize this wine was still unfinished and would not be available at The NICE Winery until later in 2014, so a little guess work was needed to predict how the wine would taste after more aging. We tried a few variations and I believe a decision was made as to the correct percentages with the blend. Ryan and Ian were going back to the winery one last time later in the week to make the final decision so we will all have to wait and see what the final product will be next year.

Ryan trying a different blend

It was now dark (the day had flown by) and it was time for dinner even though it seemed like we had just eaten lunch. We entered the winery’s tasting room where we learned the tasting room part of the building had been built in 1898. The tank room was built in 1923 and other parts of the winery were built in 1958 and 1963. A large dining table had been placed in the middle of the tasting room.

We first were able to taste the 2011 Muscat de Alexandria which is a dry version with the same grapes used to make The NICE Winery’s Demi-Sec. The wine is fermented dry instead of continuing fermentation like the Demi-Sec is. Next Alberto Cecchin treated everybody to a 2005 Malbec that was 100% organic with zero sulfites added, which helped prove how well an organic wine ages over time. We then tasted a Malbec and Cabernet blend, also with no sulfites added from 2011.

The asado dinner started with empanadas and continued non-stop with various dishes like the sausage, beef, and pork ribs. The ribs had been basted in an incredible seasoning while cooking over a wood fire. Dessert was flan with their 2012 Demi-Sec.

A surprise was then held with two dancers doing a number of folk dances to entertain us. It was an excellent ending to a long day at Cecchin Family Vineyard even though it did not really seem long. The hospitality of the winery showed exactly what a family winery can provide, and we all left feeling like we were part of the family.