El Valle de la Concepción
Uriondo
The Valle de la Concepción is the heart of the Bolivian wine region. In order to taste some of the country wines, I stopped in the village of Uriondo. It is a nice place where street art is flourishing, and where it is very pleasant to stroll around.
I visited two sites where it is possible to taste the local wines; the Casa Vieja and the Valle d'Vino. I vaguely knew that Bolivian wines had a reputation for being sweet since the Bolivian people like them as such, but I was quite surprised during my tastings...
Casa Vieja
Yes, I have been surprised by the Bolivian wines, but in a negative way. At Casa Vieja, I tried 6 wines and there were so sweet that I had problems differentiating the taste of each of them since the sugar was overpowering all the other flavours. My verdict: bad.
Valle d'Vino
In the case of Valle d'Vino, I would say that there are in a league of their own. Their wines are so bad that they don't even deserve the name of 'wine'. There are very sweet liquors that after tasting 8 different wines, I was so full of sugar that my heart was pumping faster than normal and I ended up almost throwing up. The Bolivians with whom I made the tastings seem to like them... Verdict: horrible.
Friends from Bolivia. I am sorry to have such a harsh opinion, but I must be honest and say what I think. However, to be fair, I learned later on that the two places where I had my tastings were among the worst in the region. Apparently, there are some Bolivian wines of international quality. I still haven't tried them, but I will give Bolivia the benefit of the doubt...
The owner of the Valle d'Vino bodega loves garden gnomes, and there are everywhere on the property. In addition to its wine offerings, the bodega also functions as a hotel; I spent a night in this place.
The bodega has a small museum with various oddities collected over the years by the owner. It is what I liked the most at the Valle d'Vino.
La Angostura
A small canyon along a route in the Concepción Valley.
