Northwestern Argentina Bicycle Tour, Day:
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Side Trip: Peru Bucket List Adventures
Argentina: Day 9
Pictures and Stories about Bicycle Adventures
Argentina Bicycle Tour of
Northwest Provinces
September, 2016
A Walk about Cafayate
Iglesia Catedral Nuestra Señora del Rosario
(Church of our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral)
Above Left: It is very unusual to see a Catholic place of worship called a Church and a Cathedral in one name. In fact this is the only place that I know with both names.
Above Right: Iglesia Catedral Nuestra Señora del Rosario.
Above: Most South American Churches have a 50/50 Duality of Respect between Male and Female characterizations; it is usually represented through Jesus (as the Male symbol) and Mary (as the Female symbol).
Lunch in Cafayate
Above Left: La Burra (Negra/Dark), good stuff!.
Above Right: Typical Argentine styled Pizza.
Novena en Honor al Señor y la Virgen del Milagro en Cafayate
(Religious Procession Honoring Mary and the Miracle of Jesus, in Cafayate)
Above: Only by chance that we were eating lunch on the town square and on the opposite side a crowd came together around the church 'Iglesia Catedral Nuestra Señora del Rosario'. We finished lunch and watched the proceedings and we had no idea that a Religious Procession was going to occur, as the Procession came together we photographed the proceedings.
As coincidence would have it, we had to follow the Religious Procession in order to go to our hotel in order to meet Federico in order to driven to our first prearranged Winery appointment/visit.
Vasija Secreta (Secret Vessel), 100+ Year Old Bodega (Winery), Cafayate
Above: Nearly as I (Dennis) could understand, the original family members arrived in Argentina in 1813, moved to Cafayate in 1828, and descendants began the Bodega (Winery) in 1910.
Above Left: Terry (in yellow cycling jacket) at the entrance.
Above Right: Family.
Above: Barrel ID# and Capacity - Guessing the H is the capacity measured in Hectoliter,
1 Hectoliter = 100 Liters or 26.42 Gallons (therefore 51 Hectoliters = 1,347 Gallons).
Above Left: De-Stemmer.
Above Right: Small Test Vat.
Above Left: Must Filter (last used on Red Grape Must).
Above Right: Our Bodega Tour Guide.
Above Left: Malbec Sample; we bought a bottle.
Above Right: Tannat Sample.
Above Left: After tasting.
Above Right: An overview of one (of many) of the fields. We're looking WNW and the sun is to the NNE.
Above Left: The Photographer (Dennis) had to take this image in manual mode or else the auto-adjustor would have focused on the nearest object.
Above Right: Old vine trunks, about 30-40 years old, and trained to follow the overhead wires. My personal rough rule of thumb for vine age is about 3 cm in diameter every 10 years. This field is irrigated with water channels that parallel the vine trunks.
Above: See the rust colored bird? The Photographer (Dennis) snapped this image in manual mode for the right sided picture and in auto-focus mode on the left side image.
Above: Beautiful vine trunks already have tiny Spring buds. It is September and we are south of the Tropic of Capricorn, i.e. we're in the Southern Hemisphere).
Bodega El Esteco (The Eastern Winery), Cafayate
Above Left: Bodega El Esteco (The Eastern Winery), Cafayate.
Above Right: Family Estancia (Place of Stay).
Above: Older Vine Trunk heights have been cut back from the top wire to the lower wire. They all show new growth.
Above: Spring life on hightop vines that provide their own cool shade in the heat of the summer.
Above: This is an older vine field that uses a water irrigation flood technique. Vine growth, production, and control is all about water management.
Above: Different irrigation ditches exist. Once a Vine takes root, the water method cannot be changed or the plant will likely die, it will definitely suffer in terms of production. These ditches supply water for a ground furrow flooding technique.
Above: This is an Old Vine Field, almost like bush vines.
Above Left: Graphed vine, see the new vine growing around the old vine truck.
Above Right: Graphed vine, the new vine has nearly consumed the old vine.
Above: These are new vines and they use a water drip process. We spent about 10 minutes discussing the improvements of drip line delivery. The inside of the line has baffled corrugation so that the water gets equal pressure everywhere. Older style drip lines deliver more water closer to the source than at the end and one attempt at delivery improvement was to make the holes smaller near the source than at the end. There is a lot of science behind farm management.
The net effect of water management is that each field has different life giving water delivery process and their multiple management processes are an important a part of wine production time line. There are different experts involved in the production of wine from the beginning of the process to the end and every field crop needs its own specialization of control.
Above Left: Vine Field and Pasacana Cactus.
Above Right: A creek pond helps with water management. Most of the irrigation and water pumping comes from this pond.
Above Left: All of these storage tanks are for wine, #6 the near tank on the left side holds 5,964 Hectoliters (157,552 Gallons).
Above Right: We are about to seat for a wine tasting.
Above Left: Three El Esteco Wine Products.
Above Right: Our tour guide used to be the General Manager and he now he serves in a retirement position where he can do whatever he wants to do. Often he can be seen tending to grape vines but today he wanted to show a couple of Americanos around the estate. Also with the aid of various fresh spices and flowers, he wanted to teach us how to hunt and identify flavors with our nose and tongue by having us smell the spice first and then hunt for it by taste or smell. He is the son of a Dutch businessman and he speaks Dutch, Spanish, and English fluently. We had our best wine tour and wine tasting ever.
Above: An overview of the estate of Bodega El Esteco.
A Hike through a Cañon of Quebrada de las Conchas (the Creek of Shells)
We enjoyed exploring around Cafayate today and seeing all of the Town's people enjoy their Celebration.
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