Wine tasting in Mendoza

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So the plan was to spend some time visiting some of the bodegas in the wine region of Mendoza, and of course sampling some of the produce. It had taken 3 days of travelling to get here from Ushuaia. We met Helen and Fergus in Santiago en route and found a brilliant hostel in Mendoza called Chimbas, with a pool and a lovely terraced outdoor area - the perfect location to enjoy a glass of wine.........

Mendoza was a pretty town, though fairly quite on a sunday, lots of plazas, pavement cafes, shops and the large and peaceful parque San Martin. However, 2 things in particular stand out for me in Mendoza. Firstly, a most excellent wine shop, imaginatively titled 'winery'. It was devoted to Argentinian wine, with a separate room for each style of wine. Needless to say, a number of purchases were made and later consumed. Secondly, while tasked with the job of finding food and ice (while Russ and Helen nanna-napped) Fergus and I happened upon heaven, in the form of a giant Walmart. Sad I know, but I've been missing supermarkets, and this was in a league of its own. Obviously related to Asda, it sold George clothing, as well as food and drink, trampolines, car tyres, hockey sticks, duvets and cushions, tennis rackets, tents, paint, but best of all, the icing on the cake, something which made me exceptionally happy.......Hoegarden!!!

We did manage one trip into the wine area of Maipu, where we hired bikes from Mr Hugo and set off to visit a few wineries. We had a very civilised lunch with a couple of cute dogs (not strays this time) at the Tommaso winery overlooking the vineyard there, follwed by some more tastings at the Tempus winery with fantastic views over the vineyards with the Andes in the distance. Mr Hugo then very kindly gave us a glass of wine while we waited for a taxi back to the hostel. A couple of evenings were spent in the hostel, wine tasting and barbecuing - could almost have been back in Earlsfield (except we never had a pool, and Harry wasn´t there.......sniff sniff). Our last day in Mendoza was spent recovering in parque San Martin before catching a bus to Valparaiso.

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Comments

[Caroline Burgess]

Harriet!
Wow, Harriet looks very cute! Don't let any of those strays have their wicked way with her, and keep her warm!