Would you like some cheese with that WINE?

Yesterday I went on a field trip to a winery, or bodega, in Spanish. Let me just say this was the best school field trip I have ever had the pleasure of attending. First of all, I ate the most delicious grapes ever. Just shoved them in my mouth like a little chipmunk.

The only bad thing about these grapes is that they aren’t seedless!

I learned a lot about vino. How its made, the different types of grapes, the length it is stored to bring it to the peak of flavor…. There are 4 types of grapes, peti verdot, frances, cabernet soviergn, and garnacha. Also did you know the color of the wine is determined by the skin. The longer you keep the wine with the grape skins, the darker it will be!

Las Uvas. These ones are called Montrestrell.

Here are fermenting grapes. I will warn you it isn’t the best smell. Kind of smells like a night after you have had too much to drink, and wake up not feeling so great the next morning.

I love the smell of fermentation in the morning! Not.

They uses these barrels to house the wine while they ripen. Mo is in for 4 months, Puerto for 12, Mira for 14 and Salinas for a full 20!

I also got to do some wine tasting! I have always liked the taste of wine in small sips, it was my favorite part of church when I was younger… And I have had wine on other occasions, but never any particularly good wine. So I was very excited to try some out, and the ones were sampled were fresh from 2004. Along with this tasting were also the most wonderful olives in the world, as well as potato chips, and assorted nuts. I have obviously never been wine tasting before, since it is illegal for one more year in los estados unidos, so I may have gotten a little carried away…. A couple of us decided we should finish the open bottles, we couldn’t let it go to waste! =) That made the ride home a lot more fun.

¡Salud!

The group of us enjoying our vino.

Anyways, I had a fabulous time and learned a lot. I even bought two bottles of wine to take home. They sold them to us for 3 euros, instead of the normal 20. I also took a fantastic almost three hour nap once I got home.

Mission accomplished.

My favorite picture of the day! We were so happy about our wine!