Tag Archives: wine

Mendoza: Argentina’s Wine Country

Over the long weekend me and a couple of friends decided to travel to Mendoza, a city know for serving Malbec wine to very thirsty Argentines. In order to get there we booked our bus trip on what seemed like a sketchy website but in the end things worked in our favor.
The bus trip to Mendoza was 13-14 hours with pit stops along the way. Some buses serve two meals to the passengers and seats on Flechabus are very comfortable.
We arrived in Mendoza around 3 o’clock and took a taxi a taxi to our hostel: Hostel Mayam. The place didn’t have the best interior design but the service and the kindness provided to us was wonderful.
After freshening up and taking a nap we decided to see the center of Mendoza and go out to dinner. The resto-bar, the name given to a restaurant that happens to have a bar, was nothing special but we did have the opportunity to watch the soccer or futbol game between Argentina and Chile. It was intense but it was wonderful to see the passion and blind loyalty some people share for the sport.
When we arrived to Mendoza we had nothing planned but we did know what we wanted to do. On that Friday we went to the Tourism Department, which by the way was very helpful, and received brochures from some of the tourism agencies in Mendoza.
We decided to have a half-a-day wine tour in Maipu. The agency would pick us up from our hostel and take us to two wineries and one olive factory. One of the wineries belonged to a big company in Argentina and the second was a family-owned business. The olive factory was small and produced olive oil and other cosmetic products.

Wine from Bodegas Lopez

The first winery: Bodegas Lopez was big and beautiful. We were given a tour of the distillery and then given a tasting of the Malbec and sparkling wine. Our guide showed us how to taste the wine and appreciate its distinct flavors. The same thing was done and the second and smaller winery but we had the chance to see the gardens and the vineyard. At the olive factory our guide also gave us a tour of their business and then proceeded to give up a tasting of their different kinds of olive oil. I didn’t expect much from the tastings but it was very good; we were served small pieces of French bread with virgin olive oil, garlic olive oil, rosemary olive oil, and dried tomatoes.

Winery Bodegas Lopez

Gardens in Don Arturo’s Vineyard.

Don Arturo’s vineyard

That night we got back to our hostel and were served an asado (Argentine barbecue), possibly the best asado I’ve had in Argentina. For the cost of 100 pesos or roughly 6 dollars we got a ton of meat, salad, bread, and wine. We also got to socialize and talk with the other students, which I think is the best part of staying in hostels. I meet Australians, Swedes, and French people I whom I had the pleasure of speaking with.
On Saturday we booked two activities at Argentina Rafting, a tourism agency. We decided to go rafting and horseback riding. The agency provided up with transportation and the proper equipment to raft (wetsuits, boots, and life jackets). The water was especially cold but it was crazy fun. The horseback riding was my favorite as we got to ride the horse around the mountains.

Poterillos in Mendoza

The trip to Mendoza was surprisingly cheap. The bus trip to and from Mendoza was around 190 dollars, the wine and olive tour was 30 dollars, and the each of the activities was 30 dollars as well.

Location: Mendoza, Argentina

Exploring outside of Seville

Over the past couple of weeks, I have not only been able to enjoy Seville but see other parts of Spain as well! My study abroad program planned several trips over the past couple weekends including daytrips, overnight trips and weekend long trips. Between all the bus rides, planes and walking, I was able to see some beautiful parts of Spain.

Side note: I am having problems uploading photos from my camera so I only have a couple photos that my friends took and sent me. I am trying to solve the camera issue asap so I can share some of the great things I have seen and experienced!

Aracena

We did a daytrip to this little town called Aracena. It is located in the mountains, about an hour away from Seville. The first thing I noticed was that all the houses were white! They were all stucco and of very much the same design and I think it made the little town just charming. I t also caused me to wonder how do the houses stay so white? I guess because they don’t experience a change of seasons here. The white houses and buildings with the hot sun cast upon them just seemed to portay “Summer”.

We visited the church in Aracena and it was on a hill and therefore at the highest point of the town. It gave a breathtaking view of the little town and the surrounding countryside and mountains. It used to be a castle and then it was converted to a Catholic church ( similar to many things here in Spain that have changed or developed overtime due to Spain’s complex history involving the change of powers and religion). It was relatively small in size but the various details in the church made up for the size. It had beautiful arches, ceramic/tiled walls and a tall ceiling. It just amazes me how much detail is in one little church and that it is was probably all constructed, painted, and designed by hand. There were no machines or trucks or factories to produce the building materials or manufacture the tiles.

After visiting church we walked through the little town and stopped at a bakery. There are lots of bakeries in all the towns we visit and throughout Seville-and I just love it! At this particular “panaderia” I got a coconut macaroon and an mini apple pastry. The coconut macaroon was so delicious, one of the best that I have had. It was soft and on the inside and nicely toasted on the outside. We had lunch at Pena de Arias Montano which was a little park/lookout point located in the mountains close to Aracena. There was a nice breeze as we enjoyed our “bocadillo”. Bocadillos are the Spainsh name for sandwich or packed lunch.

Sitting with some friends outside the church in Aracena! ( I am sitting on the far right)

Cadiz, Jerez, and Bolonia

Vamos a la playa! ( We are going to the beach)

This trip was on a weekend to the beaches of Cadiz and Bolonia as well as the famous little wine making town called Jerez.

Saturday we spent in Cadiz which is the oldest city in Western Europe, founded around 1100 b.C. ! We did a walking tour and saw the momument that commerated the constitution of Cadiz. Cadiz’s constitution called “la Pepa”, was the first Spanish constition ever drafted.There is an “old” and “new” part of Cadiz. The old part is the original city that was present many many years ago and parts of the original city walls still remain. The newer city is an expansion of the town that was necessary as the population grew. Cadiz is well know for its beach “playa de la Caleta”. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. We also walked out on a very long pier/Jetty that led to an old castle. It gave a great view of the coast of Cadiz.

That night we drove to Jerez which is located midway between the sea and the mountains. It is most well known for the type of wine called Sherry. I don’t know much about wine so I had never heard of Sherry before. But I learned that the authentic Spanish Sherry is a chilled, very dry, white wine. Jerez is also really well known for horse breeding and there were several horse sculptures throughout the town. For dinner I ordered a couple of different “tapas” which are the Spanish version of appetizers but they are smaller and way cheaper than a typical appetizer in the U.S. I think my favorite tapa was marinated beef liver. It was my first time having beef liver and I thought it was very rich in flavor and delicious with the marinated flavors. It was served cold and I didn’t really like that but besides that, I enjoyed the dish ( I also had to avoid thinking about the fact that I was eating liver, beef liver).

That night in Jerez the town was full of activity because there was a procession for the Corpus Christi celebration and preparation for festivities the next day. This “Corpus Christi” celebration is a Catholic tradition that involves processions (which are like a parade) with special floats/monuments that are carried through the streets and accompanied by many people, music, and sometimes animals. Corpus Christi celebrates the body of Christ which is called the Eucharist for Catholics. I actually saw a couple processions while in Seville but for this particular one, it was considered a holiday for most people where there was no school, work, and most places were closed. So back to Jerez, they were preparing for the celebration of Corpus Christi by making murals on the streets. These murals were created with colored pieces of salt on the ground. It was similar to chalk art but with colored salt. I am not sure how it was organized but it appeared that families or groups of people were assigned a certain part of the street to create a salt mural. People of all ages were making the murals including young kids. It was fun to watch and then when we finished dinner, a lot of the murals were complete and we got to see the finished product!

The next morning we went to Bolonia which is a beach and home to the Roman Ruins of Baelo Claudia. There obviously isn’t much left, since its “ruins”, but it was interesting to see how the old city used to be set up and imagine what life was like hundreds of years ago. I liked the structural design of the city which included the planning that the temple was located at the highest point of the little city- as a symbol of their religion being the most important. Some highlights included the “salazones” and this is where they stored/preserved fish with salt or “sal” (they are basically big square holes in the ground but I had learned about them in my class so it was neat to see) . It was also interesting to see their bathrooms which were community bathrooms for the city. The showering or bathing rooms were kind of like big tubs that were heated by hot bricks below. That might be hard to visualize/ not make sense but to think that they had a way of creating hot water before electricity shows they were advanced and had technology for their time.

After the ruins visit we went down to the Playa de Bolonia. It was a nice beach with almost pure white sand (which turned out to not be our friend). It was a little cloudy/hazy but you could still make out the tip of Africa just across the ocean. Africa is really close to where we were in Spain (on the strait of gibraltar), I think only 20km across the ocean. There is a huge sand dune on the beach and I hiked that with my friends. From the top there was a gorgeous view of the beach, the skyline, and the surrounding hillside. But, it was sooo windy on the beach that day that the sand was pelting us and blowing everywhere. So that made it hard to really lay down on the beach and enjoy it, but it was still a beautiful sight to see and refreshing to be by the ocean.

Standing on some rocks at playa de Bolonia

Our attempt to take a picture at Bolonia admist all the wind and sand blowing everywhere

A fun, little story about when I got home—there was so much sand in my bag from the windy Bolonia beach. I decided to shake it out over the ledge of my window in my room and I accidently dropped my bag below. Turns out my host mom didn’t have the key to the enclosed patio below so I was caught with no current solution, but I needed my bag for school and other things. So then I came across the idea to go fishing for my bag which was sitting two stories below. I devised a device with my belt, purse strap, fanny pack, hanger, and other things. It worked well enough because I actually retrieved my bag!

Location: Southern Spain

Sippin’ Slow

It wouldn’t be Italy if some wine weren’t involved. Finally, another weekend came around where we could just stay and relax in Perugia. A few friends and I decided to take this advantage and go to a wine tasting at a legitimate vineyard. We did our research and one of the places recommended was a vineyard called Lungarotti Winery, which is about a 10 minute taxi ride outside of the city center of Perugia.

When the cab pulled up one of the first things I noticed was that there were no grapes outside in their vineyard. I later learned that harvesting season is actually in the fall, and the wine that they made from the grapes was busy aging in these gigantic wooden barrels. The wine absorbs the flavor of the wood and that is also why the wood barrels have colors of red (from red wine) showing. We received our own private tour of the winery where we learned all about the process of making wine and packaging it. Wine is first held in what they call a nursery, which includes small wooden barrels. Once in the barrels for some time, they are transferred to the much larger barrels. These barrels cost around 2,000 euro each and are probably the size of a baby elephant.

One of the coolest parts of the tour was learning about how they make bubbly white wine, which is called prosecco and is just like champagne. They lay the bottle of white wine at a horizontal position for weeks and then upside down for a few more weeks. This way the bubbles form at the top of the bottle, so when you open it that is what that popping sound and all that pressure is. The bottles are held in this room with barely any sunlight and at a monitored temperature.

After the tour, we sat inside for the wine tasting. We were given 2 glasses of their white wine and 2 glasses of their red wine. The first white wine we tasted was my favorite. It had a hint of green apple in it and was very smooth. The best red wine was their signature one that has won many awards. It is called Rubesco Reserve and includes grapes from only their vineyard.

Lastly, the best thing I learned from that visit was information about their wine baths. That’s right…a person can pay about 50 euro to take a bath in some of their finest wines. Apparently, the wine is good for you because it has similar water content found in the skin and helps flush out toxins. Dream goals: bathing in wine while sipping slow on that Rubesco Reserve!

Location: Perugia, Italy

The French Countryside – traveling to Franche-Comte

“Paris is NOT the real France, come to the gorgeous French countryside and we’ll buy French cheese and go wine-tasting”. I’m not going to argue with that. After telling our French friend (Jeanne) that the only part of France I have seen is Paris, she offered to show us the real France. So we embarked via train to her grandparents’ home in the eastern region of France. After we arrived at the Besancon Train Station, she drove us an hour through the villages surrounded by hibernating grape vineyards to the small village of Frontenay. The quiet dirt roads surrounded by land reminded me of the Polish countryside.

Jeanne driving us to her grandparents home in the French countryside!

On the first evening, we went wine tasting at a winery (Domaine Band Pere and Fils). I learned about a “yellow wine”, which I had never heard of. Apparently this type of white wine is specific to the Jura region of France. With hints of dried dates and walnuts, it was a completely unique taste differing from any wine. The woman attending to us however explained that it is a new taste being introduced to our palate – and that it takes time to acclimate to. We tried to put on our best “high-class” wine-tasting techniques but chuckled as we murmured between each other about what we might say about the wine. We studied her pouring technique and mimicked her swirling skill. But besides our amateur attempts to describe the wines ourselves, the woman was a helpful non-stop resource of facts and knowledge about the wines. Considering this was my first time wine tasting, I didn’t realize how great of an experience we had. Jeanne told me afterwards that she was surprised the woman went into such detail and time with us about all 9 of the wines we tasted – it was super informative and fun. I liked that by coming to a non-touristy winery, we could actually do a real and personal wine-tasting where the people working were actually interested in teaching and helping us. And I guess her time and generosity paid off since we walked away with 7 gorgeous French bottles and a sparkling wine on the house…

The baguettes were fresh and cheese semi-stinky.

Comte cheese is specific to this region of France and Jeanne took us to a cheese shop with 2 feet-diameter wheels of cheese. They cut the cheese like it was a block of chocolate or massive slice of pie and weighed it for you. My favorite was the cheese with the marble line in the middle – it had the consistency of Brie cheese and was delectable.

At the end of the quick weekend as her grandparents waved us goodbye, I wished I had more than a primitive knowledge of French. Without any understanding I was stuck smiling my biggest smile and doing the customary two cheek kiss (traditional light cheek touch of both cheeks) and laughing at the words she stated. Laughing and smiling has been pretty useful, as it is understood cross-culturally. Coming from Germany, it was pretty weird to be immersed in an area where I didn’t know anything people were saying – it felt very handicapping. And soon that night we were back in German Freiburg surrounded by the buildings, cobblestones, and lack of countryside flies.

Location: Jura, France

Hunter Valley (March 17, 2012)

Hunter Valley is known as one of the premier wine regions in Australia. Before leaving for Australia, I spent time researching possible trips I wanted to take during the semester. Hunter Valley seemed like the perfect place – a close location and lots of wine. I love planning trips, but knowing nothing about Hunter Valley, but seeing as Hunter Valley is about 6 hours by public transportation from Wollongong and the area is pretty hard to get around without a car, we decided to take a Colorful Trips tour leaving out of Sydney. Colorful Trips targets a younger market of travelers, meaning our tour was made up of twelve 20-somethings and not any snooty wine connoisseurs who actually sniff their wine and know what it’s supposed to smell like.

The drive from Sydney to Hunter Valley was 2 hours and very rainy. The rain had subsided once we arrived and the rolling hills of grapevines looked picturesque under a blanket of fog. Our first stop was Drayton’s Family Winery, one of the oldest in the area. In addition to the reds and whites, we tasted a couple port wines and chocolate liqueurs – all of which were a puckering sweet like nothing I’d ever tasted before. After our first tasting, we had a BBQ sausage lunch prepared by our tour guide Wazzo. The highlight of lunch was getting to try a taste of kangaroo meat. It was hard not too feel bad eating it, but it tasted just like steak.

Our next winery was McGuigan’s Wines. Here we sat on stools at a round table while our host went around and poured each wine and explained its flavor. Here you definitely felt like a classy wine connoisseur. The most interesting thing I learned about Australian wine is that a rose is not nearly as sweet as we would think it to be in the US. Another fun fact is that many of their sweet whites are variations of a moscato, a wine that is not commonly thought of as high-test in the US. All the wines we sampled were available for purchase and I hoped to buy a bottle to bring back as a present to my parents, but seeing as I was almost over the weight limit on both my suitcases I brought with me to Australia, I figured a bottle of wine might be too heavy – sorry mom and dad!

The other stops on our tour were the Hunter Valley shopping area, a collection of cute shops and candy stores, and the Blue Tongue Brewery. At the brewery, you had the option to sample beers, but we chose to forgo the $10 sampling fee and continue testing wines. While we were there, a bride was arriving for her wedding reception. Hunter Valley is apparently a popular place to get married – getting married at a vineyard seems like a fairytale to me! Before we left the valley for our two hours rainy drive home, we stopped at a scenic overlook to sample some strange cheeses.

Overall, the trip to Hunter Valley was a fun excursion and I would highly recommend it to those looking for a more laid back adventure. If I ever become a snooty wine connoisseur, I would love to go back to Hunter Valley on a sunny day and do more exploring in the area. Though next time, I’ll pass on the kangaroo meat.

Location: Hunter Valley, Australia

Wine Festival in Buda Castle

The weekend of September 10th to the 12th held a wine tasting festival at the stunning and palatial Buda Castle overlooking the city of Budapest. The festival’s purpose is to allow people to sample different wines from all over the country and Europe. Hungary is a familiar name in the world of wines. The rich soil of Hungary is aptly suited for the cultivation of grapes, and thus, wine production naturally follows. Some notable wine regions of Hungary are Villany, the hills around lake Balaton, Eger, and the world renowned Tokaj. It was of little surprise that of the several wines a samples, the semi-sweet Tokaji Furmint was the most delectable. The wine festival also offered musical entertainment as well as the enchanting view of the gently lambent Budapest. Hungarians love wine. In fact, it is wine they consistently prefer over beer. This

experience of getting to know a culture through taste was as delicious as it was enlightening.

Location: Buda Castle, Castle HIll

Day 5 Czech Republic

The following day we woke up early (I went to bed at 3:30am and got up at 7:00am) because we needed to catch the bus for a 3 hour bus ride to Znojmo. The bus ride was very pleasant and allowed us to see the highway system and the country side. Once at Znojmo we were met yet again by Martin and his wife Tana, who then helped us get to the hotel we would be staying in for the night. After arriving at the hotel we ate some lunch and got on another bus to begin the wine tasting tour! This was a special privilege because you need to be a member of the winery in order to go on the tour. Since Martin and Tana were members we were allowed to attend as guests. After boarding the ‘wine’ bus we were given our wine glasses the string that would allow us to hang our glasses from our necks and a booklet of information about the various wines we would taste.

The itinerary for the day/night was the bus dropped us off at 4 different areas in the vineyard and at those areas we would tried four different types of wines. At the end the of the wine tour and after dinner we returned to the old monastery where wine is stored and were escorted to our table in the wine cellar where we tasted another 12 wines and ranked them. This was a very fun experience for obvious reasons, but additionally I got to learn a lot about how to make wine, the history of the wine in the region and of course try some very good wines in the middle of the vineyard. It honestly doesn’t get much better than that!

Location: Prague, Czech Republic

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