Wine and Mate in Cafayate

Salta can be summarized by lots of fresh, delicious, abundant, and relatively inexpensive food. Our days consisted of waking up between 9 am and noon, enjoying some amazing coffee, bizcochos with jam and dulce de leche, as well as our books. We would usually chat with the great variety of people at our colorful hostal (from friendly global travelers of France Israel USA Germany Belgium Brazil, Zionists, over-zealous and often enraged hippies, and monarchial aged Argentinean tourists, and the local flavor). At about 2 pm we were ready to start our day, and headed out into the busy streets of Salta. Usually we would venture out to explore the city for a bit, but then peruse different cafes or panederias for a cheap snack. However, by far our favorite part of Salta was cooking our own food: lots of fresh fruit and veggies, as well as an abundance of bread (Ivan was so excited for Mediterranean cuisine that he burnt his gums with the exorbitant amounts of balsamic vinegar he poured liberally on everything…).

On our second night, we cooked Caldo de Res for our hostal friends and staff. Fortunately with compromises on the ingredients everything still turned out great, and we even had people scraping the huge cook-pot clean. It was a bit comical how ‘spicy’ they found the recipe, even though we cut back on the heat quite a bit (but we are half Mexican after all…).

Caldo de Rez (and $3.00 magnums)

An even greater treat was Veronica’s empenadas. The hostal owner brought in enormous bags of meat, flour, onions, eggs, potatoes, and spices that were all kneaded, diced, and stirred by the energetic hostal guests. The dough was made by mixing flour water and salt, and then pressed through a spaghetti roller to be cut out into circles. From there the chunks of lomo, onion, egg, paprika, and potato were placed in small spoonfuls into the circular empanada cut-outs. There we folded and crimped into delicious pillows. (Kristin was far better at making the angelic pillows, while Ivan’s were… functional…). They were put into the boiler for a short period of time, and then gobbled up by the slobbering hostal guests. Ivan only ate 12+… Definitely going to be making these state-side!

Empenada professional

On November 15^th we took a short bus ride from Salta to the small wine town of Cafayate. Though windy and stomach turning, it was incredibly scenic. Kristin ogled at the rock formations and the dramatic folding and variegation of the rock structures. The river valley and the vegetation was also very unique. Of course at the 15 min rest stop we gorged on some steaming empanadas.

Scenic drive from Salta to Cafayate

Cafayate (pronounced cafa-jha-tay) has been a food-coma inducing pleasure ride. Our first evening here we enjoyed a dinner of salad, warm bread, barbequed lomo, and some unique drinking games with their abundant and cheap wine (1 liter for 15pesos = $3.50!!). After a short walk around the balmy beautiful town, we collapsed into comfy beds and slept like baby lambs. The following day we went to 4 different winery/bodegas to try some of the regional favorites.

Eschart was the first winery we ventured into. This winery definitely focused on some serious quantity (producing 4.5 million liters of wine from 375 hectacres per year!). The scale of the place was baffling, even if their young wines (2009-10…) did taste a bit like grape juice. Every part of the winery was absolutely vast. In their defense though, Mark and Laura purchased and shared the Torrontes Reserve, which was unbelievably good. Torrontes is the most common white wine grape in the region, which the town is famous for. It tastes a lot like an over sweetened French wine, but if done right it is Amazing on a hot afternoon (with some empanadas of course…). We feel as if we are somewhat wine snobs down here, enjoying the wines, but not raving about them. I guess our California palate is just accustomed to other varieties, tannins, etc...

Bodacious Bodegas

The Organic Press

After this winery we visited 3 more, all of which were fairly similar. Most memorable though was a small ‘artisan’ organic bodega called Nanni. We took a short tour of the operation and got a good belly-laugh at their serious assertion that organic wine won’t induce a hangover, irregardless of the quantity. We didn’t test their theory since the wine tasted a bit too young for us. However, another bodega called Domingo Molino had an amazing cabernet. We purchased the 2006 reserve (seriously, one of the ‘oldest’ wines we spotted… and for 60 pesos or 15$), and plan to drink it at a nice Peña (no corkage fee here!!). Afterwards we enjoyed some of the wine we purchased with local salami and goat-cheese. Truly, this is our interpretation of Eden!

Another great perk in the wine influenced town of Cafayate was the Helado de Vino (wine ice cream!) More of a wine sorbet. This small ice cream shop specialized in the vino blaco: Torrontes and vino tinto: Cabernet. A very nice treat for the hot afternoons in Cafayate.

Yesterday we went to a working cheese factory and farm. First we got walk with the frolicking goats (happy goats come from… Argentina!). We were fortunate also to see almost every part of their lifecycle: pregnant mommy goats absolutely bulging, timid kids, stinky males, and the chewing herds that moseyed in the alfalfa fields. They had just over 400 milk-producing goats that pumped out about 650 liters of delicious milk per day. They also had 20 giant milk cows. The process was very balanced and holistic, where a neighboring winery would give grape seeds and skins for protein/fiber, and the goats would give their nutrient rich poo-pellets in return. The process is almost organic, except Argentina requires the animals to be inoculated with antibiotics twice a year for T.B and Pneumonia. Other than that it was incredibly clean (especially the utter-sucking room! – they can milk 400 cows in 2-3 hours!). Probably good Ed and Nadia weren’t on the tour, otherwise they would sell all there assets in CA and start their own cheesy farm here!! After the tour we left with several pounds of cheese which we have been enjoying with our friends here for the last 2 days with our different local wines.

Milk Sucking Station

Unsurprisingly we haven’t done any of the hiking we initially intended to (except to bodegas…). Our next stop though we will be in Tafi del Valle, where we will burn off our opulent empanada/queso/bread/vino bellies. We will really miss the Casa de Empanadas though, or what Ivan fondly called the Casa de EmpaTodos! We tried everything on the menu, and visited almost every day for lunch….

12 different empanadas to choose from...

Next stop, Tafi del Valle! (tah-fee del vah-jheh)