Vintage 2011

At our house, we like wine.  A lot.

Whenever I´m in the US, I spend far too much time dallying in the wine aisles of the grocery stores, in awe of the sheer volume and selection and countries and varietals represented on most large grocery stores´ shelves.  It´s overwhelming, and often I can barely make a selection.  Or, when I do, it´s pretty much because I played eeiny, miney, moe.

Here in Mexico, our wine options are a bit more limited.  Wine aisles in the grocery stores here have come a long way in the last decade (at least, in the fancy-pants grocery stores).  The limited selection does make choosing a wine much easier.

But, as the town of Parras is a mere two hours from Saltillo, we make our wine purchases even easier and get almost all our wine from Casa Madero.  It´s the oldest vineyard and winery in North America, and, I believe, the second-largest.  Despite its size, it pumps out some pretty awesome wine.  Let me state for the record here that I´m no wine connoisseur.  However, a few of Casa Madero´s wines (merlot and chardonnay) have made me step back for a second, give them a second look-over and say, ¨Wow--that´s GOOD!¨

Thanks to us getting almost all our wine from the same place, I´m getting better at guessing what we´re drinking without looking at the label on the bottle.  So, last week, as we were eating, I was a bit stumped to what we were drinking, gave up guessing, and had to ask Mario which wine he choose.  It was a cabernet suavingnon--what I usually think of as standard, red wine.

¨But this is so . . . fruity!¨ (For lack of a better word.)  Forgive me for trying to sound all wine critic-y, but I usually think of fruity wines as wines that are a bit young, and sweeter than cabernet suavingon.  That´s not what I meant by calling that cab fruity.  Cabernet usually bites back a little.  This one didn´t.  It tasted all . . . balanced.  Smooth.  All those irritating adjectives for wine that really give one no sense what it actually tasted like, except that it was good.  Think of Tim Allen growling, ¨gooood¨ here.

Mario´s response?  ¨Yeah--that´s what a cabernet sauvingon should taste like.¨

Huh.  Really.  Well, I´ve liked all the apparent cabernet flops that I´ve tasted, but this one?  Yeah, it stands out.

Now, we´ve drank what must be a few gallons of Casa Madero´s cabernet sauvingon in the last 5 years.  Why on earth was this one be so exceptionally different?

The clue on the tag told us that this wine was from 2011.  A-ha!  Why was 2011 such a stand out year?

It was the worst drought in the last 70 years.

Whatever grapes survived that drought, they had to fight hard for their survival.  Grapes that have to work extra hard tend to make kick-ass wines.

And that philosophy kind of translates to people, too.  When I´m together with friends and we´re discussing life, we often wonder why life has to be so hard.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  And, of course, there´s not really any good answer to that question.  At least not one that I´m fully satisfied with that doesn´t sound trite.

But it seems to be a general pattern that when we do go through hard times, and we manage to come through those tough times with our souls intact, our caracters do not come out unscathed.  We´re often transformed, more compassionate.  Just like with the drought affected the grapes and made a more flavorful wine, our characters can be made more beautiful by tough times.

Now, I´m not one to romanticize suffering.  No way.  If I can somehow get through life with less than my fair share of suffering, I won´t complain.  But when I do go through those times, here´s hoping that I, too, get more beautiful on the inside.




And not just shrivel up and die, as I bet a lot of grapes did in 2011.

Parras Double-Take

Mario worked the last two weekends in a row and I had enough.  I needed to get out.  Anywhere.  The trouble is 1) I haven't had much practice driving on Mexican highways, therefore I lack the confidence to go much of anywhere, and 2) we live in Saltillo, so there are very few towns and cities within four hours of us (half of those nearby towns and cities are off-limits, thanks to narco-violence . . . *sigh*). 

For a weekend our options are:
    1)  Monterrey--but I refuse to drive there.  I just don't know it well enough and it just re-joined our "safe" list, but I'm not looking to press my luck.  We'll take a bus one of these days.

     2)  San Luis Potosi--four hours south.  Just farther away than I wanted to go.  Plus, it's rumored to be packed during Holy Week.

     3)  Texas--but my parents were visiting from the US.  Seems kind of silly to take them back there for a weekend.  Let's face it--Laredo isn't THAT interesting, and anywhere that is interesting (San Antonio, South Padre Island) is just too far for a two-day weekend.

      4)  Parras--two hours west of here.  Small town, achieved Pueblo Magico status, so it's charming.  Not much to do, but it's always a good time. 

At the Estanquillo with a view of Santo Madero

Being my first trek onto the highways, I decided to try the easiest and most boring road possible . . . Parras it was! 

My plan was to take the kids swimming at the Estanquillo La Luz (a lovely, shady reservoir).  When we got there, it turned out to be chillier than we anticipated, but the three of us with swimsuits braved the water anyway.  Then we had lunch at La Casona (basically the only place we eat in Parras . . . find the plaza with the big kiosk (just past the plaza with the clock, La Plaza del Reloj, creo) find the Neveria Chepo and keep walking in that direction.  Pass Hotel Santa Isabel and it will be on the opposite side of the street).  Amazing beef.  

I was hoping to stock up on wine at Casa Madero, but we left town at 6 and they had already closed.  Nuts. 

Enjoying the very slippery kiddie pool

Warming up with Grandma

The very freshly painted kiddie pool.  Clara's swimsuit is now coated yellow.

Since I wasn't able to stockpile wine, we returned to Parras with Mario this weekend (the day before Easter).  Stockpiling accomplished. 

The chapel at Casa Madero, decked out for Easter.

Note to self (and anyone else who reads this, of course):  Parras gets PACKED the day before Easter.  People were waiting in a huge line for Casa Madero tours.  Usually it's the tour guides who are waiting around.  Oddly, I didn't see much wine leaving the sale house. 

We were hoping to re-visit the Estanquillo, but given the crowds at Casa Madero, we figured it would be packed with people.  So we plunked ourselves at the Casona again, wandered town, drooled over fantastic hippie jewelry on the Plaza del Reloj, enjoyed some ice cream, and called it a day. 

So thanks again, Parras. We'll be back. 

I just couldn't get over the fact that there was a line for tours.  And that many people in the line.  Wow.

But not for another two months or so. 

Being good little Mexicans and playing in the water on Sabado de Gloria.

Thoroughly enjoying his ice cream.

Destination: Cuatrocienegas, Coahuila

For our four-day Easter weekend mini-vacation, we packed up and headed northwest to Cuatrocienegas, smack in the middle of the great state of Coahuila. This means that it is smack in the middle of nowhere and only those who live in Saltillo, Monterrey, or Torreon ever bother to go there. And for those of us in this region, it is worth a short trip.

Cuatrocienegas piqued our curiosity early on in our encounters with the Coahuila tourism board, as they boast a suprising amount of biodiversity in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert. This small area is home to a number of endemic species--meaning plants and animals that are found nowhere else on earth. The naturalist in me just HAD to go.

Our first day, we headed off early to Poza Azul, a deep pool that's astonishingly aquamarine. This is the scene of the larger chunk of afore-mentioned endemic species, and some scientists believe that life on earth began here. [That's life in general, not HUMAN life on earth.] It was very pretty, but there's only so long one can look at a pool of water. The Poza Azul park contains a few other pools (not quite as exciting as the blue one), a lovely, clear creek, and a turtle conservation program.

Just down the road from Poza Azul are the Dunas de Yeso, or White Sand Dunes. Yes, exactly like those at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Just smaller. In fact, the park is a sister park to White Sands National Monument. Having spent plenty of time in 2002 exploring White Sands, I didn't need to spend all afternoon at the Dunas de Yeso. Particularly because these dunes weren't so "dune-y" and not so exciting to run down. More importantly, there was a wicked wind whipping though the valley, slashing our faces with sand, so we really couldn't get out of there fast enough. On a not-so-breezy day, it may be a lovely excursion. That wasn't our luck.

Then on Saturday we joined a huge line of idling cars at the entrance to the Rio Mezquites park. They let you swim in the river and have grills and picnic shelters, so everybody and their brother wanted to be there the day before Easter. We were among the last 10 people to be allowed to enter. As it is a protected natural area, they have some limit to how many people can disturb the wildlife in a given day. They also request that swimmers to not use sunscreen. Fortunately, I had not yet put any on. When we weren't in the water, Clara and I huddled in the shade while Mario did his best to soak up the sun and get burned. I didn't seem to get burned at all, Clara only got a light burned patch on her arm, and Mario, despite his best attempts, just got pleasantly burned. Not the nearly-second-degree burn he was aiming for.

As we were among the final families to join the horde, there were no picnic shelters left for us, but the Jeep came in handy. It was also way more comfortable than picnic shelter benches. And since we didn't bring anything to grill, it was not at all an inconvenience that we had to stick to the car and the river.

The town of Cuatrocienegas itself is small, cute, clean, and astonishingly well-maintained. While no house looked like millionaires lived there, no houses appeared to be in disrepair. Rather shocking, given all my previous experience in Mexico. Their church is now on my list of Favorite Churches in Mexico. It celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2008 (a rather young church, by Mexican standards) and Mario and I were debating whether they had redone the interior for the anniversary or whether it is original. It's very simple, full of stone arches, painted a tasteful peachy-pink, sporting beautiful curling metal chandeliers--classy, simple, and elegant. I was pretty shocked to find such a lovely church in such a small town and am still disappointed that I didn't get pictures. I was planning on taking them on Easter, but Clara decided to be Miss Crabbypants on Sunday. Just like last year. She seems to have something against Easter.

At any rate, we had an excellent weekend (despite very little sleep--Clara did not adjust well to the hotel). However, we probably won't be back for awhile, as Parras is just as charming, half the distance, and sports a much better winery. But I'm glad we went, nonetheless.

Destination: Parras, Coahuila

Last Friday, Mario came home from work and suggested that we pack up, so we could spend all weekend in Parras. As I was ready to go anywhere, all three of us were packed up and in the car in about an hour.

Parras is about 2 hours west of Saltillo. Saltillo and Parras are both oasises in the desert, as the drive between the two towns is dominated by the Chihuahuan desert. Ugh. Now, when I lived in New Mexico, I remember thinking that the Chihuahuan desert was beautiful. But, New Mexico has plenty of mountains. While Coahuila also has plenty of mountains, the stretch of desert between Parras and Saltillo is flatter than Kansas. Sorry, Chihuahuan Desert--not pretty.

Therefore, it came as a huge relief to finally turn off the highway and head towards the mountains upon nearing Parras. Trees started to appear, then pecan groves, then vineyards, and my eyes were refreshed after more than an hour of staring at ocotillo and scrub.

Parras is famous for producing three products: jeans, candy, and wine. We haven't explored the jeans stores yet, so I can't really comment on those (there is a huge Dickies factory just off the highway, though). Their candy stores are dominated by pecan candy, fig candy, and dulce de leche. While not providing as many options as the candy stores in Puebla (also famous for candy) and quite a bit more expensive (it is a different type of candy, after all), the candy they sell is altogether delightful--nutty, yet creamy. I'm looking forward to knowing those candy stores better in August, when my mother-in-law comes to visit, as she has a sweet tooth to rival mine, and always seems to find her way into candy stores, wherever she may be.

However, this weekend, Mario and I were on a mission: to go swimming and to try some wine. While Parras boasts about 4 lakes, most of which are open to the public for swimming, we decided that it would be easiest, while traveling with a 4-month-old, to stay at a hotel with a pool. Therefore, while she napped, we soaked up some pool time. Little Girl even tolerated the pool for awhile herself after waking up.

Sunday was Wine Day. After checking out of the hotel, we headed to Casa Madero, founded in 1597 and the oldest vineyard in North America. They give tours, so our guide, Victor Hugo, told us all about how Casa Madero makes their wine and brandy, as he walked us over their grounds, open production areas, and bodegas. Of course, we wound up our tour in their tasting room. Casa Madero is best known for their Shiraz and Chardonnay, but we had to take their word on that, as those aren't among the wines they provide for tasting. The house exports about 85% of their production, mainly to Europe. As they're not hurting for clients, and it came so well recommended, we took them at their word and bought the Shiraz and Chardonnay. Victor Hugo also described the wine festival that both the town and Casa Madero host in the early part of August. The streets will be full with vendors, a hill near the vineyard will have a late-night processional complete with dancing, and they'll elect a new Wine Queen. What a job that must be!

As the day was winding to a close, we climbed back into the car, loaded down with our candy and wine purchases. We'll return to Parras in a few weeks. Next time we'll visit the lakes. Little Girl will like that better than the pool, as the water should be warmer--or so we can hope!