Vino y Queso

Let's be honest. The only reason we came to Cafayate was to taste the wines from this up and coming wine region. We had seen a few bottles for sale in Buenos Aires, but otherwise, we knew nothing about the region nor the wines produced here.

Here's my sommelier summary:
-vines here grow at an altitude of at least 1700 meters.
-the soil is sandy, rocky, and very dry.
-the warm daytime desert-like temperatures combine with the cool nights to add additional stress to the vines.
-the main varietal grown here is Torrontes (white) along with Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Reisling, Bonarda, Cab Franc and Merlot
-the Argentine palate prefers young, fresh wines that are ready to drink today. Many lower cost wines see no barrel aging, only fermentation in stainless steel or concrete vats, and that includes all the big reds.

We set out to visit as many bodegas as possible this morning at 10:00 AM, prime wine tasting time. On our way we came across four donkeys, two just hanging around, the others happily munching on some garbage.

Our first stop at the beautiful El Esteco winery was a total disaster. The staff was uninterested, and the three wines we tasted (Torrontes, Chardonnay and Criolla) were overly acidic, tart and barely palatable. If we had been provided spit buckets, they would have been well used.

Next was Vasija Secreta where we joined the tail end of a tour group and were served an off-dry Torrontes and an unoaked Malbec, both of which were inoffensive, but not something I'd search out in the future. The highlight there was us running into Luis, a backpacker we had met yesterday while wine tasting. He was leaving Cafayate by bus in a couple of hours, but was very happy to accompany us to our next stop.

Las Cabras de Cafayate is a goat farm that produces very fine goat cheese. We became very bad vegans for a day and took part in the best deal available in Cafayate. For 1500 pesos
, less than $2.00 CAD pp, we were treated to a plate of 3 goat cheeses, 2 cow milk cheeses, and one aged cheese made of both cow and goat milk. All of this was accompanied by bread sticks and a very generous pour of their house, Torrentes. The Torrontes was the perfect match for the blended cheese. Because Luis had a bus to catch, we didn't have time to visit the goats, but perhaps next time.

Our next stop was El Transito, another boutique winery tucked in on a side street near our accommodation. When we entered, the receptionist was more interested in her phone than in the customers who walked in. But by the end of our visit, she had provided the most entertaining tasting of all. We started with a Torrontes, and another white(???), the a 100% Bonardo that we really enjoyed. Next was the big surprise. The label translates roughly to "Steps in the Night, and looked and smelled like a well-made Malbec. The young lady explained that this wine, like a secret lover, sneaks in and gives you a sweet and thrilling moment before dashing off into the night. This late harvest Malbec did exactly that, unexpectedly offering beautiful sweetness before the very brief finish even has a moment to linger on the palate. It was as delightful as our guide.

The absolute tasting highlight of our day was our visit to Bodega Salvador Figueroa, a tiny artisinal boutique winery with only ten acres of mostly Malbec and a little Cabernet Sauvignon. They produce only about 15,000 bottles annually.

We first tried their stainless steel fermented Malbec, which unexpectedly blew us away. The wine was complex, concentrated, and everything you'd want in a Malbec. We even asked the server if he was certain this wine had never seen oak. The next was the oaked Malbec that had spent eight months in Frenck oak. This was equally delicious, but the oak was a little over abundant on the palate, almost as if the contents of this bottle had spent time in a brand new barrel. The winery also had a Malbec/Cab blend on offer as well as their reserve which only 720 bottles were produced. Prices for the first two wines were 9,000 and 10,000 pesos per bottle respectively, and for the reserve, 33,000 pesos. All of which would be a bargain at double the price. Sadly, we had neither the luggage nor the intestinal capacity to leave the shop with any of their superb product.

We suspect that this region is on the cusp of becoming as popular a wine destination as Mendoza, and are very happy we were able to visit it in its infancy.

It's unlikely we'll ever return here, but I'll forever be on the lookout for a good bottle of Torrontes from Cafayate.Læs mere