La Estancia Owners Events

Steve hitting out of a vineyard

Us in front of Bodega Piatelli

Bill & Robin in front of Bodega Piatelli

Steve & Barbara in front of Bodega Piatelli

We planned the end of our Patagonia sort-of-honeymoon to coincide with Steve and Barbara’s arrival in Cafayate for the March LEC owners events.  LEC holds a series of events for owners and prospective buyers ever November and March, about 4-5 days each.  Steve and Barbara were in Miami already for a conference, and so flying down wasn’t too much of a struggle.  Plus, Bill and Robin came in for the events as well!

Now, we’re not really big drinkers.  Wine tasting?  Sure.  Cocktails at lunch?  No way.  But the entire event weekend was wine-themed.  Wine lunches, walking wine tours in town, dinners at wineries, cocktail hours, etc.  Steve and Barbara graciously offered to sign us up for the events (we wouldn’t have seen them too much otherwise), so we got to tag along to everything.

Highlights of the weekend were:

- 9 hole golf scramble.  Kristen (who had never golfed before) signed up, and I played as her partner.  Steve (who rarely golfs) also played in our foursome.  It was really fun – we were shanking shots all over the place, but Kristen started to get them off the ground after a few holes of ‘warm up’, and sank some great putts.  All in all, a fun 3 hours walking around with Steve and Kristen.

- Piatelli dinner.  Wine maker Piatelli built a massive, opulent bodega outside of town (seemingly a vanity project, but gorgeous).  They weren’t scheduled to open until April, but LEC hooked us up with a preview of the property for a cocktail hour and dinner one night.  And what a place!  It’s a sprawling complex that would look more at home on the strip in Las Vegas.  They had a cool jazz band play during the cocktail hour, the winemaker (a friend of Bill’s) took us for a tour of the facility (and humored me by answering my questions about the mechanical equipment), and we had a wonderful dinner.  Fun night in a great setting.

- Cross hike.  One of the events offered the choice between a donkey-supported hike through some flat part of the Quebrada (not for us), or a guided hike up to the cross, led by a local fireman (definitely for us).  The fireman was super nice, and we got to practice our Spanish with him, but the hike was fairly slow going due to some less-experienced (and less in-shape) participants.  Just below the first mirador, it was getting late, and most of the group turned around so they could make the next scheduled activity.  Kristen and Barbara continued on to the cross with the fireman, but I went down to drive Bill and Gabi back to town, leaving three other participants behind (they had their own car) to find their way down.  When I went back to the trailhead an hour or so later, their car was still there.  Uh oh.  One of the participants we had left behind was older, and seemed to be struggling mightily with the tough hike.  I threw my backpack on, made sure I had my first aid kit and plenty of food and water, and ran back up the trail to try and find them.  I could see Kristen and Barbara descending far above, but there was no sign of the other 3.  I looked all over, up and down, and finally went back to the car to re-group.  And the other car was gone!  Apparently they had found their way?  I heard that night that they had gotten lost at the very end of the trail, and were wandering around the riverbed when I went to find them.  Luckily, everyone was OK.

- Blind wine tasting at Bodega Nanni.  Bill led a 3-bodega tasting tour (Domingo Hermanos/Molina, El Porvenir, and Nanni), ending up with a reception/dinner at Nanni and a blind wine tasting of a torrontés and malbec from each bodega.  It was a blast to go wine tasting with an actual winemaker, instead of just listening to the marketing stuff the tasting room salespeople tell you.

The rest was pretty much a blur of wine lunches, sobering up for long gym workouts, and fun dinners with lots of people.

Bill and Robin stayed for an extra week afterward as well.  The following weekend held the prospective buyers event, and LEC had invited Bill to give some talks about the property and their winemaking.  Bill insisted we join him, so we ended up attending even more wine lunches and dinners!  It turned out to be nearly a week and a half of fun.  For me, it was great to get to know Bill and Robin, and of course fantastic to see Steve and Barbara, too.