Our final day was truly spectacular! A very long day but every minute was well worth it. We headed east towards Punta del Este and the Maldonado area. This is perhaps Uruguay’s most exciting and up and coming wine region and despite some viticulture being present for 250 years, its recent history only goes back to 2001, when the Pivel family gave up their Montevideo jobs to set up Alto de la Ballena.
We met Paula Pivel who hosted a truly fabulous tasting with the most stunning views from their outside tasting area. Maldonado is a Uruguayan wine region with hills and undulations that create small natural amphitheatres of wines. There is huge potential for development and growth as we learned both here and later in the day at Garzon.
The Alto de Ballena wines were stunning. Top class Viognier kicked us off followed by an array of reds: Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Tannat blends and Bordeaux blends.
This was a top class start to the day.
Bodega Garzon was our final stop and what a stop. An $85 million USD investment really showed. I have been selling Garzon wines for a number of years now and the quality is exceptional. No attention to detail has been spared and splendid buildings, amazing restaurant, very welcoming people and beautiful scenery made for an extraordinary final visit.
We started off in a private dining area of the stunningly appointed Francis Mallman restaurant. Mallmann is a big name in South American cuisine. It was an amazing wine pairing affair spread over three courses.
We kicked off with some delicious fizz, followed by single vineyard Albariño, Cabernet Franc, Tannat and a passito style sweetie matched with fresh burrata, a chickpea creation, fresh fish, lamb, pork rib and chocolate and fresh fruit.
We could have stayed there all day but Franco Ilari from the Export team was waiting to take us round the estate and he did so with great humour and style. At a number of different locations around the winery there was a glass of something different waiting as Franco engaged with plenty of great information.
It was a truly mindblowing day and a fabulous end to the first leg our South American tour.