A shortage of wine in Mendoza

The road to Mendoza
The bus ride from Santiago to Mendoza went up and through the Andes range. What looks like a short distance on the map takes about 7 hours due to the vast amount of climbing through winding roads before meeting the border into Argentina. The sun shone though and the views were great - huge rocky mountains of varying colours on all sides. A little sweaty, we arrived in Mendoza around midday ready to explore.

Mendoza wine tour
Aside from dumping our stuff at the hostel, the first thing we did on arriving was to book ourselves on a wine tour. Mendoza is surrounded by vineyards specialising in Malbec, but they also produce Carmenere, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and some whites as well - mainly Chardonnay. The high altitude and endless sun produces the perfect climatic conditions for the grapes.

Our choice of tour was based on how many vineyards we could possibly see and if an English speaking guide was available. Our first disappointment was that most tours only went to 2 vineyards - ridiculous! We managed to find one that visited 3 vineyards and had to settle for that.

The next day we headed off early on our tour and were told the plan for the day. First a visit to the Villaterra bodega, a small winery, then the larger, more famous Norton bodega, then on for lunch. No 3rd vineyard - what??! Seriously - why so few vineyards? We paid for 3! In New Zealand we took in 6, 7 or even 8 vineyards in a day.

The first vineyard was a lot smaller than the Norton equivalent, and had rather more dated equipment in place. Our guide was great and told us all about the production process and so on. At the end we tried two wines - a poor Chardonnay and an average Malbec. Not a good start.

The Norton vineyard was much better - much more welcoming and impressive but lacking the small vineyard feel. We tried another poor Chardonnay and then two very good Cabernet Sauv´s.

Apart from our fantastic guide, the best thing about the day was our lunch in a beautiful old house - loads of local produce and wine. (Best wine of the day actually!). The house actually turned out to be owned by the guide’s family and was in fact set in a vineyard, however they didn’t produce wine there.

Overall, we were a bit disappointed with the tour and wines we tasted especially as we are big fans of Malbec. Not a patch on the New Zealand equivalent in terms of tour or the wines themselves - shame on you Mendoza. So to drown our sorrows, we spent the evening (until 3am) in the town’s Irish bar!

Mendoza itself
Mendoza itself is pretty nice. Very wide streets to cope with possible earthquakes and beautiful squares, which act as safety areas, again in the case of earthquakes. The place has a vibrant, young atmosphere - loads of good bars and restaurants particularly on the Villaneuva stretch just out of the centre. It was here that we met with Grant from Scotland, whom we had previously trekked with in Torres del Paine. He brought a couple of friends and we all ate and drank the night away.

Rock climbing in the shadows of Aconcagua
On our final day we booked in a rock climbing trip. Mendoza has loads of outdoor sports offerings so it was hard to decide but we went with this one for better and for worse. The climbing itself was absolutely great - we were really tested and the setting was beautiful. Some of the climbs were a full 25m which was tough from a stamina point of view and we were both found with "disco leg" on a couple of occasions. The problem was when it came to leave - rather than the transport we had been brought in, our guide fancied cutting a few corners and promised a local bus would take us back. As it turned out, we had to wait about 2 hours and were really pi**ed off by having been taken for a ride. Pretty annoying given that the climbing itself was so good.

On the road again
With mixed emotions we leave Mendoza - on the one hand we really liked the town but the tours could have been much better. Maybe we were unlucky. Onwards to Salta and hopefully more good wine than we got here.

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