San Rafael is a tranquil town located in the heart of fertile land irrigated by the frigid waters of the Andes'. We were impressed by the streets that are all lined with beautiful sycamore trees. These trees provide much needed shade especially in summer when it gets quite hot. This is a very arid area that receives no more than 250mm of rain each year. There are irrigation canals that run between the sidewalks and the street. These canals and the plan on their use are centuries old. The Inca's started the canal irrigation and the Spanish conquerers of the 16th century picked up the plan and expanded it. The open canals run everywhere, neighborhoods, suburbia, vineyards, and allow for vegetation. Interesting concept that is also used all along the Andes'.
Just a short 25km outside of the city is a "mini grand canyon". We drove to a hydroelectric plant, one of 5 built to provide power for the area along with controlling the flow of water for the irrigation. After checking out the dam and the lake, largo resuyno, behind it, we continued along a gravel road to the middle end of the lake (the lake is 40 kilometers long). This road provided unbelievable vistas of the canyon, lake and the highly eroded red rock walls, as our pictures show. It is quite an impressive drive which included a tunnel and those pesky gravel, narrow and curvy roads.
We visited five bodegas to finish our day. At the Suter bodega we got a tour, in Spanish, and were able to taste one of their wines and had fun with the staff. At a much larger winery, Bianchi, we took a tour with a guide who spoke English and Spanish which was helpful. At this bodega they only make champagne in the historic French method. We tasted their champagne and learned in detail about the way they implement the fermentation processes. At a couple of the others they weren't prepared to show you much but were very willing to discuss their product line and let you taste one or two wines. This is a large wine making area and is considered part of the Mendoza province wine industry.
Our last day in San Rafael was our favorite. We drove out to Algodon, a vineyard, which was bought by a few people from the U.S. a few years ago. It has a restaurant, lodge and golf course with plans for a tennis complex, home sites and a new winery. The restaurant, at the edge of the golf course surrounded by olive trees, is beautiful and the food was extra great. Because they have no natural gas for cooking everything is prepared in their homemade adobe ovens and/or grills. They also dry their own fruits and vegetables. When we were there they had many sliced tomatoes , onions and quince out in their "drying boxes." Because the sun is so intense there in the summer it takes only 1 day to complete the drying process. More time is required in fall and spring.
After we ate we were treated to a private tour done by the current winemaker who spoke only a tiny bit of English and another woman who spoke both languages. We walked through the olive trees over to the small looking winery. They took us through the entire wine making process and the entire building in the process. The vineyard has 1300 acres and 700 of those with vines planted. They have plans to grow quite a bit and plan on a large addition to the wine making facilities. They, like most of the wineries here, make malbec, cabernet, syrah and chardonnay. These people also made a great rose out of malbec, which we really enjoyed.
To us it looked like the wineries of San Rafael were well run and prospering. Our first touch of the Argentine wine industry was certainly a positive one. Now on to Mendoza, the heart of the Argentine wine industry.
