Farmstead Cheeses and Wines: Jeff’s Blog

What a transition – after 18 hours in transit (Mendoza, Santiago, Dallas Fort Worth, San Francisco), I’m met at the San Francisco airport by Mrs. Cheesemonger. We say adieu to our Bay Area compatriots (Meryll from JV in Napa, Jim from Wine Steward in Pleasanton, JP and Andy from Angeles/Kysela), and pile into the Cheesemongermobile [...]

After the visit to the Olive Oil factory, we repaired back to the hotel, where I blogged and napped before dinner. Surprise, we were going out to have some Asado and Malbec! This time to the famed Don Mario restaurant, a trdition of Parilla and Asado in Mendoza for generations. We had eaten at don [...]

After our most excellent Patagonian adventure, it was nice to get back to the Hyatt Mendoza. There’s something to be said for the curative powers or a fluffy bed and a warm bath to replenish and restore. The next morning, we met in the lobby for the short drive to Viejos Isaias for a tasting [...]

If you had told me that I was going to spend 24 hours on a cramped bus in order to taste wines for two hours and have a dinner with a charming winemaking family, I’d have thought you were nutso, but I did, and I don’t. The next morning, we met at 7AM for the [...]

We traveled back from the Estancia tired but happy, and arrived at the hotel a little after dark (we’re in the height of winter, and have about 10 hours of daylight – from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.). After a wee siesta, some of us gathered in the hotel and wandered around in search of [...]

Last night we went to a Mendoza restaurant for beef (called bife -bee fay – in local parlance), and when I say beef, I mean beef. Grass fed hunks of meat literally the size of a brick! Most of us were only able to eat a small portion of these very tasty megamorsels, although a [...]

We woke up and piled into the vans for a trip out to Chakana Winery a beautiful modern facility set in the Agrelo sub appellation. Chakana makes the Maipe and Cueva brands with and for Fran – well priced wines priced from $12-16/ bottle. Produced in the Luján de Cuyo subregion of Mendoza by the [...]

After spending what seemed like an eternity wandering around the Santiago, Chile airport, we met up with several other folks on the wine trip. There’s about 20 of us, mostly from Virginia (where Fran Kysela, our host, is based). There’s a sizeable contingent from California, some folks from Buffalo, a guy from Portland, a few [...]

Hello. I’m writing from the Santiago airport where I am enduring an eight hour layover. Our Miami-Santiago flight was late and we missed our cross Andes flight by ten minutes! One of my new wine pals, Paul from Top Ten Wines in Columbia Mo and I paid the day fee to enter an airport lounge, [...]

I’m so excited – I leave for a wine trip to Argentina in a few days with one of my wine heroes – Fran Kysela. Fran is a Master Sommelier and owner of Kysela Père et Fils, importer of a lot of wines that we feature at Farmstead. Check back here often, as I’ll be [...]