Backpacking South America

While visiting Cafayate, Argentina in October, we shared a delicious lunch that included two bottles of wine and picadas at a bodega with a British guy. The time flew by and fortunately, we remembered some of his recommendations. He told us about a cute little town in Bolivia, Tarija, which happens to be the center of their wine producing region. Did somebody say wine? But, in Bolivia? Really? When was the last time you had a Bolivian wine? Well, we had to see for ourselves.

So, after the Uyuni Salt Flat tour, we decided we needed a little wine and relaxation. So, we headed south for Tarija, this “little” city at the heart of a wine producing region. Little is a bit of an understatement. Tarija is a bit bigger than expected, about 120,000 people, but it definitely has a small town feel. The center of town is a bit hectic at times, but its plazas are clean and always full of people young and old passing the day (or night).

Tarija has been called the Andalucia of Bolivia and was once an independent republic before it joined Bolivia (rather than Argentina). Tarija definitely has a different feel from other Bolivian towns and cities we’ve visited. There is a strong European and Argentine influence. And, the people are very friendly and long to pass the day talking.

So we took a few days in Tarija to relax, do some planning, and drink some wine. We visited a Vinoteca in town, which offered a large variety of local wines by the glass so that we could sample the wines without leaving the confines of the city. Plus, we had the local insights of the owner and his wife, since we were the only ones there. A favorite was the Sausini Cabernet Sauvignon and Aranjuez Tannat-Merlot.

We also booked a wine tour one afternoon and we probably should have done a little more research. The wine tourism industry in Bolivia is quite young. In fact, the first winery we visited, Kohlberg, is Bolivia’s largest wine producer, and they don’t even have a tasting room.

While there, they were in the process of receiving new stainless steel tanks just in time to process the harvest. We received a brief tour of the facility, which is in town. We then headed out of town to the Kohlberg Estate, where workers were finishing their day harvesting grapes. They have a massive amount of vines and a very large house, but no tasting room. So we tasted the grapes instead. Sweet – yum.

The second place we visited was a little wine shop called Las Duelas, that featured a number of artisanal wines. Remember how we were complaining about not being able to taste the wine? Well, what we tasted at this little wine shop was not wine. It was more of a combination between rubbing alcohol and vodka. We would issue a caution when trying any artisanal wines from Bolivia. We found in Bolivia that there is a big difference between artisanal and boutique wines (boutique = generally good, artisanal = not so good). We found that going with a large name wine was often better than taking your chances on and artisanal wine.

The final winery we visited was La Casa Vieja, which means Old House. We met the owner, a local woman, and had a great conversation with her. She had a very interesting story and was one of the first wine producers in the region. Unfortunately, the wine production technique hadn’t progressed beyond using black plastic barrels lined with garbage bags to ferment and age the wine.

After the brief tour, we made it to the tasting room, where we realized that we would taste 6 wines from only 6 glasses (there were three of us…) The wine would be poured, the first person took a sip and passed it on. I already had my reservations about the sanitary state of this place, and now this?! So I just took very tiny sips, hoping the alcohol would kill any bacteria I was at risk of contracting. Fortunately, I was the first to taste. The last person in the line (an Argentine) was forced to drink the remaining wine in the glass, which was usually half the glass. For some reason, Jared took pity on the guy and started to help him finish these glasses. The wine ranged from sweet to supersweet (red and white).

Miraculously, the Argentine loved the wine and bought several bottles; I on the other hand couldn’t get out of their soon enough.

In hindsight, more clarification on the quality of wineries we would visit and the opportunity for tasting would have been smart. Regardless, Tarija does have a number of decent wines that were a great value, but they just can’t compete with the wines of Argentina and Chile, nor are they really geared to tourism of the wineries.

In the end, we did find a very good quality Bolivian wine – Aranjuez Tannat-Merlot blend. It was about a $4.00 bottle of wine in the store, and under $8 in most restaurants and we found it throughout Bolivia. It’s a good price for the quality. We would highly recommend a taste. Unfortunately, Bolivia doesn’t export much wine… yet.