April 10, 2025 Breakfast - Museli with fruit and yogurt and fried egg with ham and bread spread with cream cheese and currant jam. Lunch - Puna Winery. Snack - Essasmendi Winery
We ate breakfast at 8:00 and then drove to town to visit the Archeological Museum with Gala, our guide, at 9:00. It was a really interesting museum with the commentary provided by Gala. Evidence of human habitation in Cachi dates back 10,000 years.
Cachi is located in a river valley between two mountain ranges at about 2500 meters. On the west are the snow capped high Andes that we can see from the window above and on our east are the eastern range of mountains that we crossed when we drove from Salta to Cachi at 3500 meters. Salta appears to be on the foothills of the eastern mountain range and Cachi lies in a valley between the two mountain ranges. This area has been a relatively dry moderate climate without the disease and predatory jaguars and pumas and other nasty things that live in the sub-tropical jungles. The days are warm and the nights are cool, a perfect climate for irrigated grape growing and apparently human habitation. The climate and even the topography reminds me of Albuquerque and Santa Fe where grapes can be successfully raised with drip irrigation.
There were a number of petroglyphs with intriguing images.
The Incas conquered this area around 1450 and Pizarro conquered the Incas in 1532 and the Spanish conquered this area beginning in 1535, but there was fierce resistance to Spanish rule from the warrior people who lived in this area for about 100 years. Gala said that there was fighting among the tribes that lived in this area for 400 years before the Spanish arrived and that they all united to fight the Spanish until the 1630’s.
We saw lots of pre -Inca and post Inca pottery and several objects for personal adornment.
Then we went to a pre-Inca settlement within the city limits of Cachi that has been partially reconstructed from 10:30 until 11:30.
At 12:00 we said goodbye to Gala and shopped until 12:30 when we drove to Puna Winery for lunch.
Pune is a lovely winery with outdoor Terraces overlooking the vineyards.
We sat at a table and first tasted several wines. The Malbec Reserva aged one year in American and French oak barrels was the winner, so ordered a bottle. Then we ordered Lunch from the extensive menu.
Suzette and I split a slow cooked lamb in a clay pot but it was a tough joint of lamb and a stripped three ribs with a large pile of roasted and sauced vegetables including potatoes, zucchini, carrots, and onion.
Billy’s T-bone steak
Billy was served the same vegetables with a grilled T-bone steak and Elaine ordered a filet with the same vegetables. We ordered two lamb empanadas and an Andean salad for the table. I shared the lamb dish with Suzette and got contributions from Billy and Elaine. The grilled steaks were better but both were a little tough.
We ordered a glass of rose at the end of the meal. It was slightly sweet but very delicious.
We loved the wine and after the meal bought three bottles of the Malbec Reserva and 1 bottle of rose to take away.
Paying the bill was interesting. The bill was 126,800 pesos.
We were offered an exchange rate of 1345 pesos to the dollar for cash, which was better than the 1330 Rate we got on the street in Salta and 1265 at the hotel in Salta. So we paid $46.00 for our half of the bill.
We then drove to Miraluna Winery 1/2 km. up the road but its wines were terrible. So, we drove to the hotel and I rested from 4:00 until 5:30 when Suzette awakened me to get ready for a tasting at Essasmendi Winery that was open until 8:00.
We drove to the winery that was beautiful but the wines were not great, except for a decent Malbec aged in oak one year.
The tasting included 4 wines and an appetizer tray for 30,000 pesos. it was a lovely place to watch the sunset on the Andes and the moon rise over Cachi, even if the wines were not great.
At 7:45 we returned to the hotel and Suzette worked and I blogged and read.
Bon Appetit
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