Here are the previous cruise adventures –
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Today is my Birthday! I am now in the bottom of a new age group. Do I quality for Masters status now? This is the Ensenada port and I booked a wine tasting excursion.
I had brekky room service for coffee, yogurt and cereal, and made sure to write on the order that today is my birthday. I was told happy birthday and guest services wrote a note and slipped it under the door. This was all I got for my birthday from Carnival. I was a little disappointed on this as I though I could get a discount on a Spa service or a free drink or something.
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| My birthday note |
First things first. We headed off the boat and we got our PokemonGo stuff out of the way and hit the grocery store. We found out that you can’t by tequila until 10am. It was 9:30am when we tried. We had to come back and buy it.
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| We always shop here |
The prices here at the grocery store are actually cheaper then buying some of this stuff back home. There was a bottle of Chivas that is $15 cheaper then home. We bought those little pineapple bottles for $22 pesos each. That is what you see the streets littered with, so its obviously what the locals are drinking on the regular.
We headed right back to the boat for an early lunch then headed out to the line for the wine tasting tour I booked.
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| The boat |
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| Quick brunch |
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| The wine tour line |
I looked at the reviews and they all seem pretty mixed. I am not too picky about my wine – I’ll drink about anything. I have preferences and they all depend on the day. This wine excursion, you get a complementary bottle. And you can drink it on the bus on the way back to the boat!
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| First Stop |
First stop was L.A. Cetto after a 50 minute bus ride. They are a pretty big winery. We had a tour of the buildings.
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| The store and tasting area |
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| The tanks |
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| The wine storage area |
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| <3 |
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| So many barrels |
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| They have concerts over there |
After a tour, we got to the tasting. They had fresh olives, cheese, bread, and olive oil to snack on. There were a couple of girls who were already drunk before they got on the bus. They pretty much ate all the bread and olive oil. It was all so good, and I was helping them!
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| The tasting area outside for us. |
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| All that bread didn’t last long. |
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| The first glass |
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| One of the reds |
We had 4 wines to sample. I don’t recall any of them. 2 whites and 2 reds. All were fairly good and drinkable. I did buy one Chardonnay, it was $120 pesos. We also got our freebie bottle from this location, too.
There was olive oil and olives to buy also. Olive oil I think was $50 pesos a small bottle. I only had enough pesos for 2 bottles of wine and I should have bought another one from here. The next tasting had super gross wines and I didn’t buy anything.
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| A quick drive to the next stop |
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| Our tour guide and the sunburnt drunk girls |
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| The wine tasting ticket |
I just want to say that the wines here sucked at La Casa de Dona Lupe. I don’t know if they were all bad as in badly made, or if they were corked, or if the bottles were sitting opened for far too long. They all had that weird rotten raisin taste. It was disappointing. The store was cute and had such fresh and tasty jams and salsas. All of the jams and salsas were all good, but the wines. Ick. So gross. And this is coming from someone who likes pretty much any wine right now.
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| So many jam flavors |
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| The wine bottle prices were higher then L.A. Cetto |
I think I tried almost all the wines. The other half didn’t even drink his tastes, so I had his. It was just hard to drink. I think the Honey wine was the best. It was very sweet and thick feeling, but it was less harsh then the others. When people here bought wine on the tour group, it was the Honey wine.
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| Liquors available to taste also |
Here, we had saltines and fresh corn tortilla chips with fresh salsas, jams, and breads. They even made a couple pizzas for us, too. This was the highlight of this stores tasting.
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| Just like being at home |
Back on the bus, the tour guide had cups and a corkscrew to open our bottles if we wanted. I had him open my freebie bottle. I drank it while we drove back to the boat.
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| My bottle |
A quick snack to help process the wine when we got back on board.
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| Yum! Smoked salmon and cream cheese on a toasted bagel! |
A quick little nap and then time for dinner in the dining room.
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| Drink list |
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| Dinner Menu |
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| Braised Rabbit |
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| Spring Rolls |
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| Veal and Salmon |
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| Shrimp noodle bowl |
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| Dessert Menu |
We did not even get dessert. I was stuffed. I kinda forgot that I had that smoked salmon on a bagel. It was another early after dinner bed time for us. All that wine and sun made for a very relaxing day!
Sea day tomorrow!
