Mendoza - Argentine Wine!

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On our 8 hour bus ride from Valpo to Mendoza, we left the coast and climbed up through the Andes. The weaving drive was slow and safe along a well maintained road between Chile and Argentina, which helped my preocupied Chloe keep her cool as we steadily climbed up a long series of switchbacks and through a 2 mile tunnel at the top to reach the pass at 4000 meters. It was a beautiful drive, and immigration at the border soon after the pass was much quicker and less of a hastle than last time. As we decended the Argentina side, I caught a quick glimpse out the window of Mount Aconcagua, the tallest mountain outside the Himalayas at 6960 meters! We arrived to Mendoza in the early afternoon and although we had pesos, we had no small change. The only way to ride the bus was with coins or a non-refundable, rechargable plastic bus card. I went to all the bathrooms in the terminal asking the attendant to change a 5 peso bill to no avail. One guy even tried to charge me a few pesos to give me change, leaving me with less than I needed for the bus! Eventually a nice lady at a kiosk exhanged my bill for change and we got on the local bus into the center and walked to our hostel. After checking in, we explored the unimpressive city of over a million people. The most interesting part of the day in Mendoza was while we passed the hip bar area. A Barcelona La Liga game was on and I noticed that for 15 minutes, as we passed every other bar, Barca had scored again. They were having a field day finding all the gaps in Getafe´s defense. On our way back, we stopped at the supermarket and I bought a pizza to embellish with veggies and chicken for dinner. The hostel served us free wine, but it was worse than Carlo Rossi. We finished the night watching a movie in the common room and went to bed by 12:30.

The next morning we were up by 9 in order to do what almost everyone comes to Mendoza - wine tastings. During all our travels, other travellers we had talked to about Mendoza had told us to rent bikes from Mr. Hugo´s. We had met a few Brits the night before with the same plan so we teamed up with them for the day. After walking a half hour to the bus stop, we rode it for 45 minutes before arriving to Mr. Hugo´s. A really friendly man, Mr. Hugo set us all up with bikes and we were explained the various wineries or tastings we could do in the area. We came to the conclusion that riding out to the furthest and working our way back would be the smarter option, as we would have to ride less the drunker we got. The furthest winery open to the public was 14 km away. Bodega Carinae was French owned, but the owners didn't know a thing about vineyards and hired specialized agriculturists to make their dream come true. We tasted a few of their low level wines and the quality reflected that of the owners' knowledge. We had the comfort in knowing it probably could only get better from here...Our second stop was at the only sparkling wine public bodega in the area. The young Argentinian girl was bubbily and spoke with a thick accent; everyone liked her immediately. We tried a few sparkling wines, a port, and a sherry. The desert and cooking wines were interesting but a sip was plenty to appreciate. The sparkling wines were decent but not spectacular. Yet it was better than our first stop so we were content. On our way to the next winery we passed an olive farm that offered a tasting. They were on a lunch break but still set us up. Their paste was pretty awesome but it was a pretty weak tasting, as there was no explanation to anything. I guess that's what you get when you interrump lunch! As we were leaving, the guy who set up the tasting asked us where we were from and we responded California. He asked us if it was true if there was rivalry between the north and south and if in NorCal they said "hella" to mean "mucho" or "demasiado". We laughed and confirmed his questions. He said he liked that frase and would side with NorCal if it came down to it. I liked the guy, another potential A's fan added to the list!

Our next stop was Bodega Familia Di Tomaso, a generational family owned winery. The tour guide did not have near the personality of the girl at the sparkling wine place, but the old cellars and vintage wines were pretty cool to check out. Our fourth stop at Bodega Tempus Alba, Chloe had the idea of each buying a glass of wine and sharing them around a table. This was a grat idea not just because we each got more wine this way, but also because it was cheaper and would be able to taste a greater variety of wines. They had 6 wines by the glass and there were 6 of us so it was perfect. Tempus Alba was a larger winery, and had a nice terrace outside overlooking the vineyard. It was nice to be able to sit, taste, and discuss each glass at our leisure rather than be led through the provess like sheep. As we finished the last glass, the majority winner was the Cab, and turned out to be the best wine we would taste all day. Everyone in the group was really happy that Chloe was with them, as seh really relished the opportunity to taste, appreciate, and evaluate the different bodegas and their respective wines. Without her around, all the Brits would have treated the tour as another opportunity to get pissed. After leaving Tempus Alba, we decided to head to Viña El Cerno, a smaller bodega across the street. Chloe opted out of any tasting but the rest of us went with the same plan and bought a few different glasses and passed them around. Paybe our palates were too saturated with wine at this point, but none of the glasses left much an impression. To finish our tour we headed to a local beer garden down the road a few kms. Here at 4:30pm we settled in for a much needed late lunch. I had a pint of their roja and a few empanadas. I wasn't as desperate for food as some of the others since I had brought along some leftover pizza from the night before. Regardless I was hungry and the beer was a delicious change of pace. The empanadas were pretty spectacular as well as they were handmade. We hung at the beer garden for a while before we had to get on the bikes again to ride back to Mr Hugo's. After returning the bikes we were given a styrofoam cup filled with jug wine. From what we had heard, we could stay and drink free wine until they closed at 9pm. However, at this point we were all pretty wined-out so after putting down the gross wine we refused any refill, thanked Mr Hugo, and headed to the bus stop.

The way back was not as familiar as we thought, and each of us got our maps out frequently to figure out where we were and where to get off. Eventually Chloe and I recognized a cross street and advised the rest of the group to get off. We walked them to a more familiar central area then headed to the supermarket to pick up a couple things for dinner. I thought an easy option would be to buy some ground meat and make burgers. Unfortunately, the market was having a meat sale and everyone in the neighborhood came to stock up for the week. This meant I was in line behind some 40 people. All I wanted was a half kilo of beef, and now it seemed I had to wait an hour to get it. While waiting, I befriended an older couple and from the conversation, they offered to order my beef for me. Clutch, as they were about 15 numbers ahead of me. I thanked them, checked out, and headed back to the hostel, passing 2 carnecerias that I hadn't noticed before. Son of a...We ate yet another late dinner and headed to bed soon there after. Maybe of of these days we will learn to cook dinner a bit earlier and have more time to healthily digest before bed!

Our last day in Mendoza we had a bus in the evening meaning we had all day to go touring again. We covered a lot of ground the day before, but had missed going to the most famous and largest winery in Argentina, Trapiche. The Brits had nothing planned for the day so they tagged along again. When we arrived to Trapiche at noon they hadn't opened and had tours at 1:30 or 3 pm. Since the beer garden was close by, we headed there to have some lunch and a beer before heading back for a tour. Our time at the beer garden was as good as the day before, that place is pure quality! We made it back to Trapiche for the 3pm tour, passing their enormous property with separate lots dedicated to grape processing, lower grade fermentation, bottling, and distribution. Our tour started with a short video in a small theater room then continued with a bilengual guide. In the main courtyard there is a Louve style glass pyramid under which we were told there is a grand conference room where international wine reps come to taste their lines of wine. This place was obviously a big deal. It was interesting to learn how the railroad drastically increased popularity and sales of wine, especially for Trapiche. After passing the old train tracks, we entered a large hallway that led to the higher quality fermentation rooms. I was impressed by the wood flooring throughout the hall, made to look like antique bricks. From here we were led up to the tasting room, beautifully designed with modern, smoothed concrete floors and glass windows looking down into the fermentation area that was warmed by the rich wooden bar and ceiling. Our tasting was set up with 3 glasses. We tried a Cab blend, Syrah, and their Medalla Cab. The last one comes from 45 year old vines and was phenomenal. It really made the difference to understand what a winery can produce when they give tastings of a wide range of production, and don't just stick you with their bottom-of-the-barrel chalky wine. After the tasting we were lead out to the entrance and walked back to town.

Near the center was an artesan olive, liquor, and chocolate tasting. Here, we were given a quick tour and explanation of the various olives udes and process to make the oil that we all love. Then we were led to 2 tables full of various olive oils, pastes, and jams to try. We had gotten pretty hungry from walking so we all kept circling the tables and dipping the bread until they began taking the dishes away. My favorite was the sun dried tomato infusion, so good I could have dipped an entire baguette by myself if they let me! After, we got set up at the bar and tried a few styles of chocolate before being shown some 20 different liquors. We each got to try 3, but my fovorite was the chocolate; strong, but bitter and sweet to smooth it out. Chloe only sipped hers then gave me the rest of each shot. Liquored up, we took off and walked back to town to catch the bus back to Mendoza. This time we knew just where to get off and made it back to the hostel with plenty of time to eat something before having to grab our stuff and head to the bus terminal. We got a little confused on figuring out which city bus to get on to take us there but eventually after some stressful patience we made it with time to spare and boarded our Cordoba bound bus at 9pm.

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Photos

Aging
The insides of the next pic

Aging tanks
Converted fermentation tanks to bottle aging

Chillin after a long day of tasting
Beer garden