JAN 11 – Andes crossing + arrival at Santa Rita
I’m really glad we decided to be shuttled through the Andes. The variance in terrain as you go along is breath taking… as if the thin air wasn’t breath taking enough.
From the highway you can see Aconcagua – the highest peak in the Americas at 22,841 feet.
After crossing the border we stopped at El Portillo, a ski area, just to take a look around. It seems small from its “base” until you realize that there is a lift that goes down among the “28 curves” and people ski down the side of the mountain there.
28 curves – yes it is that scary.
When we arrived at Santa Rita, we quickly grabbed our suits and went to the pool…. Lethy went and got a bike… which I stole for a bit as well and we wandered the grounds some…
Of course dinner featured many different wines…
The Carmen blend was our favorite. So far no luck finding it in the US.
JAN 12 – El Morado – time to work off some of that wine!
The next day we got a bit of late start which meant we’d be hiking in the heat of the day.
We brought 4L of water, which proved to be too little 🙁
We started with a lot of energy!
Yep, it’s only 6km to the lake, but because of the heat and dryness, it felt much, much further.
I actually forgot to take pictures when we got there I was so focused on lunch. Â From my mom:
We did eventually get there and back, but we were all parched. On our way down, a park ranger was coming up the trail and gave us some water from a clean spring.
And back at Santa Rita again a fantastic dinner with a wide array of wines:
Both the blend and the straight Syrah were very good. The Syrah varietal was surprisingly full bodied.
Mom and Lethy snuck into the kitchen to ask the chef, Elisa, some questions:
Jan 13 – Apalta Valley – Lapostolle and Montes
Lapostolle is really nestled into the hill of the Apalta valley. If you don’t know its there you’d never find it. It’s designed to be a nest from the outside and a wine barrel from the inside.
And from up top:
The wines are obviously pretty good too, especially the Clos Apalta.
Hey, some of us have been here before!
From there we went and had lunch at Hotel San Fernando. Good food… and as a preview for the afternoon we had a good wine:
You can’t tell from the photo, but the deck is over a pool of water, which actually runs under and through the winery. Some Feng shui thing. The vineyard here really goes up the mountain steeply and they took us on a little ride up there and back around.
We did the entry level tasting which was perhaps a mistake. All good daily wines, but nothing spectacular. Syrah was the best.
Back to Santa Rita for dinner, they saved the best for last.
We started with a Cab. Then Antonio and Manuel got us a special gift. The first of two.
Carmen every year makes a label that is primarily for the employees at Carmen and Santa Rita. They get a few bottles each and a small remainder goes to market. Antonio gave us one of his from a year they consider the best ever. Also we had a bottle of Triple C (Not pictured).
The second gift we would have later.
Off to Patagonia the next morning EARLY.