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Published: November 23rd 2009
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Mendoza - Argentina´s best wine region
Thursday 12th November - Sunday 15th November (Days 67-70)
Mendoza is a beautiful place, it was completely levelled by an earthquake around 100 years ago. When it was rebuilt the planners had this in mind, so they made the avenues really wide (room for the rubble to fall). The result is a picturesque city, filled with green plaza´s and wide tree lined avenues, surrounded by Bodegas (vineyards/wineries) and a backdrop of snow covered peaks in the distance.
Thursday night we say goodbye to Cordoba and jump on an overnight bus for Mendoza. We arrive in Mendoza 8am on Friday the 13th!!!!! With our huge backpacks, which we´ve not carried for 5 weeks, we go in search of a place to stay. Using the guide book, or as we like to call it "the Bible", we head for an area which has many to choose from. After half an hour of walking we find this place in the book. It seems ok but we want to see what else is available. So we start checking out all the others around the area. After spending another hour trapesing round, we eventually decide to
Alta Vista
Wine tasting go to the first place we saw. Suitably knackered from the journey and walking, it was time for bed.
Refreshed and thirsty for wine, we go in search of a tour to the vineyards "Bodegas". There are hundreds of companies offering tours. We checked out a few. Some expensive, some not so expensive. We book for the next day with a mid-range company who offer your choice of 4 Bodegas plus a Gormet 5 course lunch, personal driver to whisk you off to the next place for some more wine tasting, sounds good.... too good.
Happy in the knowledge that we´ll be drinking wine throughout the next day, we decide to freshen up and go out for dinner and a sneek preview of what´s in store for us tomorrow. Consulting the Bible once more we head to Av. Villanueve, an avenue lined not only by trees but by bars and restaurants. We find a nice looking place and both order the largest steak on the menu and a bottle red. It was fantastic, too much for us to finish (the food that is) and embarrassingly cheap. Afterwards Rick discovered a bar which has a micro-brewery. It made 8
different beers ranging from Pilsner lager to creamy stout, and everything in between. In true British style we decide on trying them all!
It´s late, we´re more than a little tipsy, the car is picking us up at 9am for a day of getting wrecked, I mean a cultural day of wine tasting, we need to get to bed. Lizzy gets in first and almost immediately jumps straight out again screaming "It hurts, it hurts!!" followed by "It´s spreading, it´s spreading!!". After a brief inspection of the bed covers it transpired that Lizzy was not alone in the bed, and had been stung by a bee! With the source of the pain discovered and appropriate cream applied order was resumed.
We wake up with sore heads and dry mouths and one of us with a bright red bee sting, ready and raring to go! We get picked up by our driver Orlando and already the first seeds of concern are sewn. Orlando claimed to be 22 yrs old, he looked 16. He seemed nice enough and mentioned that he liked to drive, handy we thought. On the way to the first of our chosen Bodegas, Orlando took a
couple of wrong turns and has to stop to ask for directions. We finally arrive at the first Bodegas, Alta Vista. It wasn´t on our list but it looked nice enough and the tour was in english. However we were late so joined up with the rest of the group just before the wine tasting. We tasted 4 wines; 1 dry white and 3 reds, a Blend of red grapes, a Malbec and a Malbec Reserve. All very nice and all before 11am!
Moving on to our next destination, Bodega Weinert, the oldest winery in Mendoza. This was not on our wishlist either but it was on our back up list of Bodegas. We get there in time for the tour and got to enjoy an incredibly sweet dessert white wine, and another Malbec. Although yet to reach a Bodega of our choice, confidence in Orlando, our driver, was rising ( along with a blood-alcohol level). We were now off for a Gormet 5 course lunch at another Bodega called Ruca Malen. We get there, after some more detours, late for the tour, again. Nevermind we could do with some nice food to soak up the wine. Each course
is accompanied by a wine to complement the dish and the view is breathtaking. Excellent, a nice romantic meal for 2...... We had our choice of tables as everyone else was on the tour. We sit down and just before the first appetizer we were joined by our driver. Strange, after enquiring if Orlando was eating and dropping several hints that the table had become a little crowded, it was evident that he was staying. With romance out the window we endeavor to enjoy the food. It was exquisite.
With food in our bellies and the wine count up to 11 by now we venture off to the next Bodega, Norton. At last, a Bodega which we had chosen. Norton is one of the largest Bodegas, originally started by an English engineer and is renowned for it´s "Champange". It was quite a distance to get there. This was made worse by the fact that Orlando took us to the back gate where we could not enter. So, brilliantly, instead of turning the car around, we drive along a dirt track to finally rejoin the main road just outside where we had lunch. With a feeling of deja vu we
arrive to find that the tour has already started and that was the last tour in english. This was the last straw and lizzy, flushed red from the wine, went a vivid purple through disappointment. Rick has a word in the shell-like of Orlando, who is immediately on the phone to his boss. To try an appease us the lovely people at Norton offer us to join the wine tasting anyway. There we had a crisp white and ( yes you´ve guessed it) another Malbec, both delicious.
Orlando comes back with an offer of 2 more Bodegas that we can go to, a small one nearby and large one on the way home. We get to the small place where the tour was with the owner. The owner was a lovely, enthusiastic, short old man. He didn´t speak a word of english but didn´t need to as he passionate gestures explained the working of is winery. Afterwards we were driven home as the Large Bodega was now closed. Having not exactly got what we had asked for, we were not asked to pay for the remainder of the bill. We were not going to pay more than the deposit
Beer!
First draught beer for a while anyway. All in all it was still a lovely day, 13 wines tasted, 5 course Gormet lunch and spectacular scenery.
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