Day 22 January 25, 2008
There are many family owned fruit companies in Uruguay and today we enjoyed visiting some of the great ones. Our host, Rodolfo Fitipaldo, began by driving us to the Santa Rosa winery. www.bodegasantarosa.com.uy This family owned firm began in 1898 and is the premier producer of sparkling wine in the country. Last year they produced over 300,000 bottles by the "Champagne method" and many more of tannat, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay. The cousin of Rodolfo, Juan Pablo Fitipaldo, is the winemaker and he gave us a great tour. He introduced us to Daniel Mutio, one of the owners. He told us about the cost of shipping a container of wine to Florida ($4,000 and it contains 15,000 bottles of wine.) Daniel showed us the large subterranean cave where they were about to entertain a large crowd from one of the huge cruise ships that sail to Antarctica. This tourist business has been a boon to many local wineries. As we left the tour buses arrived and the cruise passengers enjoyed a feast of roasted meat, wine and tango dancing.
As we drove on Rodolfo told us about his hobby, racing horses. His favorite horse, Berli Babe, is racing on Sunday at Punta del Este. Last night Carneval began with wild parades and concerts. The big horse race is part of the celebration.
Next we went to an orchard and met Juan Fernando Corbone, an Ingeniero Agrenomo who advises growers and warehouses on horticultural practices. With him we walked through several pear and apple orchards. They are in the middle of Royal Gala and Bartlett pear harvest so we met some pickers, tractor drivers and took great photos. We visited the Indio packing shed that Fitipaldo owns and watched them packing Galas for Italy and pears for Brazil. The office staff showed us how they do the paperwork for international sales. On the wall they had a Washington Apple Commission poster showing all the major apple varieties and a big red WAC logo. It seemed odd to see them here in Uruguay, but shows the worldwide reach of our brand and logo.
At about 2pm we went to Bodega Bouza, a fantastic boutique winery, to enjoy lunch and walk around the vineyard. Rodolfo ordered for everyone and we each had a huge steak in Tannat wine sauce. After lunch we visited other orchards to see the very tight planting of new Bartlett and Abate Fetel pears. The trees are one-half meter apart. This will result in 9000 trees per hectare. It looks too close to me, but they believe it will yield 60 tons to the hectare within 5 years. We took some great photos of Pink Lady apples and Galas. Their big problem is scab as they had seven days of rain in the spring and could not get on top of the disease. The Red Delicious have poor shape as there is little temperature difference between the day and night here. The climate is much warmer than home; palm trees and lemon trees are as common as apple and pears. But on the way home, Gail finally did see a heard of cows being driven by "gouchos" down the middle of the dirt road. Sadly they were milk cows in Uruguay and not the beef cattle of the Pampas she has been looking for. Still, it was a great day. Very generous people and successful family businesses.
The ocean runs brown as the silt from the great basin of South America pours into the Atlantic. As our ship pulled away from Buenos Aires harbor the water was a dark brown, flowing from the Rio de la Plata. The original European settlers in the 1500's called the river the "Plata" as it is the Spanish word for silver. But the water does not really look silver, it just looks muddy and dirty to us.
The ship was named the Sylvia Ana and she was big and new, like a Washington State Ferry. We entered a room with about 40 comfortable leather seats and six tables and chairs. The steward came up and offered us a cappuccino, croissants and newspapers. We only had about 20 people in that cabin, it was a nice place to ride across the ocean.
We arrived in three hours, a smooth and pleasant ocean voyage. After clearing customs we took a cab to the Sheraton Montevideo. It is a new hotel, according to the guidebooks the best in the city. From our room on the 23rd floor we can see the entire city and a great view of the ocean. We took a walk around the neighborhood and went to El Viejo y la Mar, a blatant rip off of the name of Ernest Hemingway's prize winning book that every American high school student is required to read. (I wonder how many of those students can actually recall any important theme from the novel?) The menu has two photos of Hemingway and a quotation from the book in English. The Old Man and the Sea is built right on the beach and the bar is the reconstructed hull of an old fishing boat. It is actually very well done and the food was great. We tried the Paella, saffron rice and seafood. The people here have a very pronounced accent; some words easy and some difficult to understand. For "pollo" or chicken, they say "pojo." In fact any word with a double "ll" becomes a "j." I asked for "payeya" for lunch and the waitress replied, you mean "payeja." For good bye "chow,chow." A regular Coke is "commun" and a Diet Coke is "coca lite."
One of our reasons for coming to this country was to investigate the Tannat grape, the mysterious wine grape from the Cahors region of Southwest France. This grape is grown in only two places on earth: Southwest France and Uruguay. According to the Harvard Medical School study released last year, these grapes are the healthiest on earth, full of antioxidant powers even greater than the blueberry. Sadly the grape has not been a winner on taste, seeming harsh and tannic to the modern taste. During the middle ages it was reputed to be a strong and vital wine that was very popular in Europe. We tried a blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Tannat. It was fine, but not our favorite. Will there be a huge market in the US for a "healthy" wine? Probably not unless it also tastes great.
After a pleasant lunch we walked along the shoreline. Most of the beach here is rocky but that did not stop dozens of local folks from sun bathing on rocks or swimming. The guidebooks says there are great beaches about 30 minutes east of the city. There are 3 million people who live in this country and nearly half of them live in the capital. It looks modern and clean, but not nearly as prosperous as Buenos Aires. Tomorrow we go touring orchards and vineyards with Rodolfo Fitipaldo. The two guys yesterday laughed when I told them we were going to meet Fitipaldo as they said he not only does not speak English, but he doesn't even speak their kind of Spanish. Hope we can communicate.
