Gulp

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[bEmma writes- We were lured into today's activity by a beautiful website: bikesandwines.com have a fantastic logo of a man on a bicycle with glass of wine in hand. So with visions of wobbly cycling home we got ourselves on the 171 bus to Maipú, a wine producing giant of Argentina. Here, we were promised, you can hire a cruiser bike and, well, cruise around the tree lined avenues, visiting various vineyards and bodegas, have tours and most importantly taste the produce. But, a quick glance at the bikes when we arrived showed no such interesting bikes on offer, only a few scary looking mountain bikes, which assured us we were getting our amazing Bolivian downhill bikes here. Although, for 5 pounds for eight hours hire, full suspension is a bit much to ask.

After a quick test, and swapping our bikes, for much worse ones it seemed, mapof local wineries in hand we set off for a taster of Mendoza. First stop was Tempus Alba, a beautiful stone building set in one of their many vineyards and behind an imposing gate. We were almost put off when we had to ring a buzzer for entry, feeling rather lame on our dodgy bikes, but we parked up. I felt like throwing mine on the ground, kid going into sweet shop style, but resisted and put it in the special bikesandwines bikestand. We couldn't get a guided tour because we hadn't booked, but were given a map and told to wander around and see stuff. Not much happening at the moment, because they're are in the middle of harvest, but we saw vineyards, had a quick look at equipment not being used to make wine yet and saw some people hand sticking labels on bottles. Then to the tasting room. For A$20, just over 3 pounds, we tasted three of their different varieties, all red, on their beautiful roof terrace overlooking the vineyards, with the snowcapped mountains of the Andes in the distance. *Hic!*
Back on the bikes in the sunshine, we rode through cooling tunnels of trees along mostly quiet roads, except for the odd truck shifting grapes, and spilling them on to us below. We went for a lovely lunch, the first in a long time. We rode for about 12 km, on these bikes, no mean feat, but were rewarded with fine food and wine at the Tapiz winery. We spent the next few hours eating baked camembert, mushroom tagliatelli for myself and yet another steak for Matt, followed by a divine three chocolate pudding and apple pie respectively. Really the most delicious tasting food we've eaten. Actual flavours... unheard of so far and a real treat, but only about 17 pounds a head. The most we've spent on a meal, granted, but the most delicious food. (Can you tell I've been struggling to find food without meat in South America?)
Afterwards, we looked around the old barrel warehouse. Huge echoing vats which used to hold thousands of litres, but with operations moved to shiney modern premises, it's now a kind of museum and cat house.

A bit wobbly back on our bikes, we had a much easier 12km back to town on the Ruta 60, intentions being to try another winery, but all we had time for was to find the yellow bike/man logo and return the crap old bikes. A fine example of how marketing works on the 18-35 age group.

Back in town, the Vendimia 2008 was under full swing and the wine full flow from huge 5 litre bottles. The Plaza Italia had an Italian themed fiesta. We had to queue for tickets to buy food and drink, then queue for said food and drink. But the vino was 2 tickets - 2 pesos, roughly 35 pence. I'm not sure what kind of paint stripper you'd get elsewhere in the world for that price, but we're both now firm fans of Argentinian Malbec. Look it up.

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Photos

Where za rum?
I'm sure I left a few thousand gallons of it around here somewhere...