Neil and I have now spent over three months in Central and South America. During our time there, we wanted to continue drinking wines but we didn’t know which wines to try. In order to showcase the variety of what was available while we were in Costa Rica and Ecuador, we created a new Pinterest Board, https://goo.gl/kCRHmt
At the beginning of the week, we took a trip out to Hacienda Chan Chan, http://haciendachanchan.com. They are a dairy farm that recently started offering lodging for people who want a day, or maybe week, out in the country. It is located only about 45 minutes from where we are staying in Cuenca, Ecuador and can be accessed by one of the local busses and then a short taxi ride up a dirt road.
Today’s WineAndCheeseFriday entry has Andean Culture, song and dance, and a cheese-making facility! If you read about Viña Florida y Queso Amasado, https://wineandcheesefriday.com/vina-florida-y-queso-amasado/, a few weeks back, then you know that we found some cheese produced nearby, at a local farmer’s market. We were fortunate enough to be able to head out to Tarqui, the village where it is made, for a tour. Our contact that sold us the cheese, Miyo, let us know that there was a tour scheduled and that we could come out and join them.
This weeks WineAndCheese not only rhyme, they look like the same word. This was all coincidence with what we found this week in Ecuador. The wine is Chilean and it is sold at a place simply called “Winery”, of course it caught our eye when we walked by. There was no wine made there but a wide range of wines available, including Penfolds, Veuve Clicquot and an assortment of South American wines. We chose the Carmenere by Cono Sur since we’ve only tried this varietal once or twice before and wanted to learn more about it. We found the cheese at our local grocery store, Supermaxi. Although we are not familiar with the brand Floralp, it said it was made in Ecuador, so we had to try it.
We’ve been in Cuenca, Ecuador for two weeks now so we figured it was time to try some local flavor. Our wine was purchased at a local monastery and all we knew about it was that it was white wine made there. Our cheese had a funny story, we were in a restaurant one night and our conversation lead to the fact that we review cheeses, so we were given directions to a local market to buy this cheese. The market was about a 40 minute walk from our place but we were up for an adventure! Once we arrived we did our best to understand that this cheese was called Queso Amasado and that it was made in a village named Tarqui. Now onto the tasting notes.