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Published: July 27th 2009
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After leaving Salta and moving south towards the city of Mendoza, there was only one thing on our minds...... Wine. Oh the hallowed grape of Argentina which had already given us much cause for celebration and saved us some money on the drinking front, it was finally within our grasp.
We had heard from numerous sources that when we arrived in Mendoza there was only on place to go to get a proper experience of the vineyards, and that place was Mr Hugos. One Dutch guy we met went on about Mr Hugo so much that we thought it must be a joke ( imagine the comedy dutch accent) ¨Dat Mr Hugo ish amashzing, you know, when you finishz ze tour and go back to hisz plaesh, he jusht keeps bringing out more andt more wine, and you shay hey Mr Hugo can we hav shome more wine, and he goesh, for shure´. We had also heard from a reliable family source that Mr Hugo was a legend - FACT, and when we finally arrived at our hostel in Mendoza the uber-friendly lady who owned the place claimed that Mr Hugo was like a father to her, so expectations were
high.
We needn´t have worried as we got off the bus in the small town Maipu just outside of Mendoza, we were instantly mobbed by kids on bikes trying to rent us some rides or a tour, when we said we already had one booked with Mr Hugo, one boy stepped forward proudly and claimed ¨of course you do he´s the best, come with me¨. We followed said boy a hundred yards down the road and up a small drive and into the arms and kisses of a jolly old man with a great moustache, who greeted us like we were old friends, this was the man, the legend Mr Hugo, and he was probably a bit drunk. He set us up on some bikes, (none of us had ridden in years and Julia only once before with gears) a bottle of water each and a map of the area with a few recommended vineyards and places to have lunch and said he would see us in a few hours.
We set off attempting not to get run down by the rogue drivers (which became much harder after a few glasses later on) and cycled down beautiful country
roads in search of some amazing wines. After a brisk 9 km cycle we found our first one, tried their excellent produce, bought a quality bottle for the grand sum of 4 pounds and feeling a little light headed ( as it was barely mid day), moved on to the next on our list.
There is no point recounting all the wines we drank (mainly through lack of memory), but suffice to say that they know how to make wine in this country and great food. The entire day was incredible and although mid winter here, sunny and not too cold, allowing us to cycle badly around the town and get pretty drunk while doing it, God Bless Argentina. When we had finally finished the road back was full of tourists on bikes, some worse for wear than others, but ALL with Mr Hugo´s bikes, and a laughing Police escort which we like to think was more for our protection from the drivers than anything else, maybe!
When we arrived back at casa de Hugo, the good man and his wife were busy opening bottle after bottle of wine which was refreshing no fewer than 80 people, and
the wine kept coming with Mrs Hugo especially forceful that as soon as there was more room for wine in a glass, it was refilled. This amazing task was dutifully carried out until we had to be put on the last bus back from Mendoza at 11 pm, and after much toasting of the Hugos and after they happily posed for numerous pictures with drunken tourists, the evening was over, and not a penny was taken from anyone for what must have been cases of wine that was drunk.
Mendoza itself is a great city and has plenty going on but the real and genuine thing to see while you are there is Mr Hugo, possibly the nicest man in the world. That is unless you get the opportunity to go to Restaurant 1884. We had this opportunity due to a belated birthday celebration for Julia. We had heard of this place many months ago as " a nice place for a bit of a splurge while in Mendoza", however when we researched it properly we discovered that owner Francis Mallman was something of an South American celebrity chef, and his Mendoza restaurant had been placed in the top
10 restaurants in the world by both the British Times and New York Times, this is not what we expected...... We went to what was definately the nicest restaurant we have ever been to and were treated as if we were paying with a Black Am Ex card (which we weren´t), we ate and drank and the bill for a world renound top ten restaurant was 3 courses each, plus wine, plus cocktails..... a staggering 40 Pounds each sterling, ridiculous!!!!! To top off what was already a fantastic night was that it just so happened that the renound owner himself was in the Bar relaxing, this was really the icing on the cake, and something you may not get if you go to a "Celebrity Chef´s" establishment at home.....
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