Wine, wine wine - Mendoza and Chile

by anna (and david)

What can we say here? One week, two sides of the Andes, 10 wineries and some great food. Travel, wine and food: An appropriate way to finish our international tour.

It's hard to do things independently in Mendoza as the roads aren't considered very safe (they drive like mad people), the roads aren't well sign posted, and you can't just drop into wineries. For this reason, we paid for two tours of two of the main regions - the Uco Valley and Lujan de Cuyo (the other reason was that it meant we could both taste as much as we wanted. They are very generous with their tastings in Argentina). These took us through some new and older vineyards, mostly producing the staple wine of Argentina, Malbec, but also experimenting in shiraz, cab sauv and tempranillo. We also tried some sensational restaurants in the area, with some tasting meals on the tours, a great Italian with homemade gnocchi, and another bodega restaurant dishing up chivito (roasted kid). We ended our time in Mendoza at our Malbec limit (it's rich, fruity stuff), with very stained teeth. (Mendoza itself was a beautiful little rural town at the

Mendoza
Vines backed by snow capped Andes

foot of the Andes with tree-lined streets and a very relaxed feel about it).

We took a bus from Mendoza to Santiago de Chile to enjoy the scenery through the Andes, and we weren't disappointed. It was a great drive with stunning vistas of the mountains, glacial lakes, and desert like countryside.

Santiago is a great, easy city to be in. The highlight was probably a very clean, greasy spoon type place (Pollissimo) that served up cheap 'completos' (famous hotdog street snack of Chile with avocado), and other sandwich and hamburger type dishes including 'chacareros' a roll with steak, tomatoes, green beans and chillies. We had both fallen in love with these from a well known hole in the wall of the same name when we worked in Boston. I'd all but forgotten about them and was great to be reintroduced again.

We rented a car and headed out of Santiago on our second day to Valparaiso, a port town. We stopped in the Casablanca Valley to visit a couple of vineyards on the way, and, especially compared to Mendoza, we were really impressed with some of the produce. Known as a white wine area, we also tried a great pinot and shiraz.

Valparaiso, is a great, edgy (lots of murals and buildings half falling apart but looking cool) kind of place and we loved exploring its hilly streets. We had a great meal at Pasta y Vino, sitting at the bar as we learnt you need to book well in advance to get a table at this place that serves creative home made pasta and sauces. (Another highlight for me was getting the top bunk at the place we stayed at).

Before we left, we explored one of the houses of Pablo Neruda, a slightly eccentric, Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet who had houses across the country. We couldn't take photos but if eccentric means great stripy wallpaper, bright colours and a house with a sensational view, I'm all for being eccentric! It was good to see.

We spent our last day driving through the countryside. This wasn't our intention. We had wanted to explore two other wine regions around the capital but nothing seemed to be open. We couldn't find accommodation either, so ended up back in Santiago for the night (although we did manage to squeeze a quick tasting in the

The Last Supper
One last, very Argentinian meal at Soberbia

next morning before heading to the airport).

We flew back to BA for one last night before flying home, and we had a plan. Our last supper was very Argentinean at a favourite local restaurant of our called Soberbia. Provoleta (a big thick round of cheese grilled with oregano oil poured over it), meat (costillas de novillo i.e. steer ribs), ensalada mixta (very basic lettuce, tomato and onion with balsamic dressing) bread and malbec. We finished with dulce de leche (thick caramel sauce eaten for dessert, breakfast, or whatever) pancakes and coffee (and our friendly waiter sent us off with a late harvest wine - "tardio" - typical of Argentina) Yum. A great way to end our time in BA.

Then it was suddenly all over and we were on a plane back to Sydney. Hearing the concentration of Australian accents on our flight was strange and wonderful (as was getting my hands on my first SMH for 12 months). Arriving in Sydney, it suddenly felt like we had only left the day before. At times over the year, time went slowly and we really felt like we had the chance to lap things up. At the end, it suddenly felt like it has all gone really fast.

It was good to be home (and greeted by mum at the airport) to what is a very shiny Sydney, with people who talk our language (and I don't just mean English) and back in our own bed (even better than we remembered). We're looking forward to moving back into our life here and enjoying some free time in Ballina and Sydney before getting back to work.

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