South America- Day 18- Mendoza-"Valle de Uco: from garage to temple""

Now for the great organized wine tour! We had read great things about Trout and Wine before we came, and it came through and we had a really terrific experience with them on our trip to Uco Valley. As mentioned, we had gone by the office the previous morning to join the tour which is when we met Charlie. An Irishman who came to Mendoza around 10 years ago, he runs the branch and was an absolute delit. In chatting with him while booking, he ended up giving us a bottle of wine (that is usually given as an online booking incentive) because of Brennan's name! Not only was he delighted that it is an Irish family name, but it happens to be the first name of the winemaker who makes the complimentary wine! What a coincidence! Charlie also turned out to be the driver on our actual tour since most of his staff are on vacation given that it's low season, so it was really fun.

He and our guide picked us up at about twenty to nine and we headed off with four other people I a van; an american couple living in são paulo who were on their 'moon and two brazilian women in town for the weekend. Turned out to be a fantastic group-- we got along really well with everyone and are going to try to meet up with them when we're in their cities at the end of the trip. they American couple in particular was too funny-- they lived in dc before moving, he is attending business school in são paulo, and his first name is an irish family name as well!! Their best friends just got engaged and moved to old town too, so in addition to random job brainstorming she helped with, it could be a really random and great connection!

Back to the wine... the first vineyard we stopped at was Pulenta. The winery is owned by two brothers who are actually part of the family that owned Trapiche before they sold it. It's therefore a fairly new winery, but they have beautiful premises as well as a ferrari motor in the tasting room (the family was the first importers of ferrari and are apparently very into cars). We began with a delicious glass of rose, then a tour of the facilities, followed by an "identify the aroma" game in which they had various herbs, scents etc in wine glasses and we had to guess what they were with our eyes closed. Then we went through the full tasting which was great and got to try their olive oil as well.

Next up was Azul, which is a boutique vineyard with very small production (which they actually call garagiste down here!). Absolutely awesome wines but with very limited distribution which is always both exciting and disappointing. We had what ended up being our favorite malbec there; very straightforward and unoaked so you could really get a sense of the region and the grape itself. We also got to do a barrel tasting of their gran reserva 2011 which will be in the market in 2015-- pretty awesome. This one was actually in their production facilities so we were bordering on slightly numb when we left given the continued freezing weather.

Last but definitely not least was Salentein. Definitely a bit of a behometh compared to the other ones we visited, it is truly a mecca. It was the first vineyard in the valley, established only around 10-15 years earlier by a man from holland who saw the opportunity and built the complex. There is an art museum, a restaurant, and some of the cooler cellars we've seen which include beautiful tasting rooms with marble tables so large they had to be lowered in by crane before the ceiling could be finished as well as a circular room with stellar acoustics in which they hold concerts. Incredible. We did our tasting with the lunch itself, which was terrific though very filling, and had a blast chatting with our group. Did a quick tour of the art museum space then back in the van and on our way back to the city of mendoza.

Because lunch was late and we had honestly been gorging a bit lately, we opted to skip dinner but did make a pit stop at a wine bar/ shop called Vines of Mendoza to do a little more tasting and use the coupons for free glasses of wine that the lovely Charlie had given us. A very fun stop in Argentian wine country for sure!

Tasting Notes
Pulenta 2012 malbec rosada **
Pulenta 2011 La For blend
Pulenta 2010 malbec reserva
Pulenta 2010 gran cab franc reserva xi*
Pulenta 2010 gran pinot noir **
Azul malbec 2012 **
Azul cab sauv 2012 *
Azul reserve 2010 * (60% malbec, 40% cab sauv) only 7k bottles
Azul gran reserve 2011** (65% malbec, 35% cab sauv) to be released in 2015, only 3k bottles (2009 in market now and isn't exported)
Salentein sauvignon blanc
Salentein pinot noir reserve 2011
Salentein numina gran corte 2011**
Salentein primus malbec 2010**
Zorzal reserv pinot noir 2011
Diamandes de uco gran reserva 2008**
Gimenez riili gran reserva mlbec 2009*
Monteviejo 2007**
Gran lorc poetico petit verdot *