Matt’s Bolivian Wine-Lover Win
Though our Senior Writer Matt Kettmann wrote this week’s cover story, he is in Bolivia right now! He is reporting on the harvest for Bitoque Wines, which is the brand run by Bibi Ji restaurant owner Alejandro Medina. He wrote about it in last week’s Full Belly Files, the newsletter that we email to thousands of readers every Friday morning. He also talks about his first visit to Bolivia with the “Ride for a Reason” fundraising mission, which helped support health clinics in the Amazon. He still considers this trip to Bolivia in 2003 “the most impactful trip” of his life. You can go to independent.com/fullbellyfiles to read the full story.
Here he is with an old vine of a grape called negro criolla, otherwise known as mission grape here in California. These ancient vines grow up into pink peppercorn trees, giving them a very unique set of aromas and flavors. See all of his photos on Instagram at @mattkettmann.
