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Today started with another slow breakfast sitting outside on the patio overlooking the farm, we could really get use to this simple lifestyle.
Today we are going to find a couple of vineyards and taste more San Rafael wine…there must be something good out here! Argentina isn’t so great with their signs…at least not in wine country, we have been spending a lot of time lost, but the good thing is we don’t really have to be anywhere we don’t want to be! By the time we arrived at the first vineyard, they literally just closed for lunch which is quite common here…things shut-down during the day for lunch. We decided to go on to the next one and hopefully stop by this first one on our way home. Since we had no idea how to get to the next vineyard, we pulled over to a little food-stand to ask for directions. Of course, they did not speak a word of English…through my small amount of Spanish and hand gestures…we figured it out.
We finally arrived at the oldest vineyard in San Rafael, Goyenechea. The property was huge and we could see the extra-large vats/oversized barrels used to store the wine outside. We walked in and first noticed how much character the tasting room had…the floor was made of cement and flat pieces of wooden logs. The logs in the floor matched the wooden beams in the ceiling, and the old wooden wine barrels lined the top part of the entire bar. The women working at the winery was just finishing up with her other customer…so we looked around the large tasting room while we waited before she was able to show us the options for tasting.
Some of the tasting came with food and we decided since it was lunch time, to sit at their bar and have a smorgasbord of food while sipping on their vino. They poured us the first wine which we weren’t huge fans of and then started bringing out food…of course empanadas as well as various meats, cheeses, olives, dips and bread. As we nibbled, we sipped on wine…searching for one we liked and chatting amongst ourselves-there were no other guests in the building.
After a leisurely tasting…we bought a couple of bottles which were decent, we liked the Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 which was aged in new french oak for 16 months. We were then on our way to the winery that had closed on us prior to this one.
Back at Alfredo Roca, we arrived just as they were closing for the day! I got out of the car and pushed the button at the closed gate…speaking in Spanglish and trying to have them squeeze us in. She opened the gate and I went in to find a different women who spoke English well and agreed to do a quick tasting for us…yeahhh! Giff parked the car and we followed her through the waiting room and into the tasting room which was within their warehouse. After speaking with the women a bit…she realized we really would prefer their reserve line of wines which means they are a little more money but are aged in oak and usually are more complex wines. The other wineries we have been tasting at, have been charging to taste the reserve wines but she gladly opened new bottles for us at no charge. We liked a few of them, but did notice the price points on these bottles were definitely not on the bargain side of things. However, this wine did taste better than some others we’ve had in this area over the last week.
We bought 4 bottles, a chardonnay which we seem to be leaning towards lately (maybe it’s the heat) as well as a blended red table wine. We also bought a Pinot Noir which was very different from other Pino’s we have had in California…in fact, I would say this one is our favorite so far. We added a bottle of their dessert wine before paying our tab. We thanked the women for getting us through the gate after hours and were on our way back to the B&B.
We arrived and had a bit of downtime in the room before sitting outside at the main house for a traditional Swiss fondue dinner. The oner of the B&B is from Switzerland and had advertised classic swiss fondue so we requested it for this evening. She had the table set for us on the porch and we sat dipping our food in the fondue watching the lightning storm. The owner went to the yard, poured salt and stabbed the ground with a knife…she looked at us smiling and said it was traditional in Argentina to do that in hopes of keeping the storm from hitting their crops (frost is very bad for vines). Interesting…
After dinner, we played with the camera, leaving the shutter open for long periods of time to get lighting bolts and fun blurred pictures. The lightning storm went well into the night so we sat on our back porch watching the storm as did our neighbors before bed.
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Published by Brandey Kabat
What I like: Dark chocolate, yoga, fresh squeezed juice, laughing, hiking, wine, travel, food, lush products, being warm, having long hair, the ritual of drinking something hot first thing in the morning…
What I don’t like: When people smell their fingers, pushing elevator buttons, confrontational situations, not being able to fall asleep quickly at bedtime…
Most random job ever: Plastic surgery consultant
As for my love life: I met my husband mid way through my junior year in college, as soon as I laid my eyes on him I was attracted to him. In fact, I made the first move which was a bit out of character but there was something about him…probably the fact that he was smokin’ hot!!
Where from and where to: I grew up in NY, went to college at The Ohio State University and then headed to CA after graduation. My boyfriend (Giff) and I had a map, a borrowed van and used stuff from his mom’s basement aka a vacuum, silverware, old Christmas ornaments etc., and about $1000 each. We thought it would be a good idea to head straight to CA since neither of us had been. Being we didn’t know anyone there nor did we have a job or job interviews set up or a place to live…I would say we did it the hard way! However with a bit of help from Giff’s mom who flew out to put us up in a hotel, bought me a suit for interviewing and co-signed a lease to get us a place to live we eventually found jobs and an apartment and have been in CA for 10 years.
Our story: After moving out to CA and living together for about 3 years we got engaged. He popped the question while down on one knee on the beach at sunset after we finished our picnic he had packed of bread, cheese, shrimp cocktail and wine. He even had the ring in a box that had a light shining down on it when opened so as it was getting dark, this amazing man was asking me to be his wife as he handed me a huge rock…Yes! Yes! Yes!
In 2005 we were married (I am biased but our wedding was absolutely amazing). By the end of 2005 we were new home owners. 2006-2009- we were both happily married, attached to our 3 cats and were focused on building our careers.
Giff and I got pregnant mid year 2009 with our first baby but what should have been one of the highlights of our life was soon distracted by the news I received at the doctor’s office.
The lump in my breast that had been dismissed the year before as nothing was now being diagnosed by a different doctor as breast cancer. Thankfully Giff is a persistent person and when we went in for our ultrasound (to hear our baby’s heartbeat) he brought up the request for testing to be done on the lump rather than dismissing it based on feeling it.
The going gets rough: Things began to move so quickly at that point, it was hard to breathe. I was 30, pregnant with my first child and going into surgery to remove breast cancer. I was about to go through what would be the worst year of my life. The plan had been discussed, we were going with the most aggressive regimen possible- double mastectomy, port surgically placed in my chest, chemotherapy, drug therapy and radiation. We also had to terminate the pregnancy. This cancer was estrogen positive and the hormones were actually feeding the cancer. That little angel whom was the cause of our going into the doctor saved my life.
Giff was my rock through every step…interviewing a team of the best doctors, memorizing which medicines I needed to take and when, driving me to chemotherapy and sitting next to me while I was so scared, telling me I was beautiful when I was bald, and so many other things…words cannot express. When you say your vows, in sickness and in health…you would never guess sickness of this magnitude at this age would be in the near future. In addition to this hardship, Giff’s dad died of a complicated prostate cancer the day we came home from my surgery. I could not hold my husband as he mourned for his dad because of the pain I was in from the mastectomy. How did Giff handle all of this pain at one time? How was he so strong for me? He is amazing. Giff’s dad was one of those people whom you naturally wanted to be around…his smile was contagious, his love for life was invigorating and he listened so intently when you talked in a conversation with him. He made you feel special. We think about him often and will miss him so much.
My family and friends were also by my side…my mom flying out from NY several times to help us with cooking and cleaning and holding my hand. It must be one of the most awful things in the world to watch your baby girl be diagnosed with breast cancer. My girlfriends also flew out to take care of me and help with anything they could. Other friends living closer would come by just to sit and talk or watch movies. There were so many cards, letters, flowers, cookies, and other gifts that came from all over the country. It’s amazing to have such great people in my life. In addition to my amazing circle of friends and family, there were the strangers with whom crossed our path. Whether it was a letter in the mail from a breast cancer survivor, the anesthesiologist who called Giff during my surgery crying happy tears that the cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes, or our fertility doctor who promised to watch over our frozen embryos as if they were her own. There were so many small gestures that made such a big impact on our lives.
Looking at the bright side: Thankfully this was caught in stage 1, had it been caught a year prior by the first doctor I had gone into about the lump, it may have been caught at stage 0. Please learn from my lesson…insist the lump be tested – a lump cannot be diagnosed by touch. They were able to cut all the cancer out and after I finish the entire regimen including a pill I take over the next 5 years, they said there is a 95% chance the cancer will never come back.
Our exciting future: We’ve decided to re-prioritize, we are taking 400 days starting February 7th of 2011 to travel the world! We will travel to new places, eat new foods, taste new wines and meet new people. We will focus on healing ourselves both physically and mentally. This will be one of the best years of our lives.
View all posts by Brandey Kabat
Spinning Around The World 
Bran has the best hand gestures doesn’t she!!! I totally understand everything!!!