Mendoza

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Mendoza, Mendoza, Mendoza. Situated flush against the Andes this city comes with a big reputation from the people, as well as the guide books - ‘miss it at your peril’ and ‘if you’ve (foolishly) only given it a day or two on your itinerary, you’re bound to end up hanging around’ is the common denominator. With only two days in Mendoza, I was left thinking ‘will we be the fools?’
A seductive city, full of wide streets and grand plaza’s, the Lonely Planet blurted. Fresh from our overnight bus from Buenos Aires we found a vacant hostel. Knowing we had little time, we were already ahead of ourselves, knowing just about what we wanted to do. So we set off for the day expecting seduction, squeezed into a few hours leaving us yearning for more.
Basically Mendoza’s centre is filled with leafy, reasonably wide streets, no less than five plazas (in the centre) and a brimming café culture, which of course makes for a pleasant stroll, but that’s about it. After nine months of seeing the cream of South America, (ok that sounds snobbish) Mendoza really, is nothing special. Yes it’s a very nice place but the plazas are relatively bland, the gorgeous colonial architecture of other cities is a touch on the thin side and the museums? Nothing seemed worth a visit.
So why is it so raved about? Bygone days of travelling tranquillity from the guide books? The sheep heard mentality of travellers who flock to Argentine shores claiming it to be the pinnacle of South American travel, a conclusion formed after spending their whole six months in the country, while only leaving it for a week? Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because of something we noticed as we awoke in the morning sun on the bus. Cerro Aconcagua - South America’s and the Southern Hemisphere’s highest peak. At 6960m we had made a return back to the Andes and a welcome one at that. As the soaring peaks came closer I was itching to get back into the mountains (time I’m afraid, won’t permit). Now of course Mendoza isn’t in the Andes, it’s just beside the foothills. Which holds another reason to its god like status, we are in Argentinean wine country. The foothills of the Andes are the perfect place to grow magnificent vines and the area surrounding Mendoza is crammed full of Vine yards. Wine, mountaineering, trekking, Andean adventure sports and Vino to name but a few, give Mendoza its special reputation. As we wandered around and peered into the tour agencies, it was obvious why Mendoza is popular. After a hard trek, days rafting, summit of Aconcagua or a wine tour Mendoza is the perfect place to come back to and recharge the batteries before the next adventure. The nightlife is also recognisable, another necessity, especially if you’ve been in the Andes for a while.
We easily saw what we wanted in the city in a couple of hours. To be fair we already knew that we didn’t really want to see that much, so from that perspective the city didn’t disappoint. Looking at the activities on offer gave me itchy feet, especially to get back into the Andes. Something that was completely off the agenda and something that led to those worrying ‘it’s nearly all over’ thoughts.
The main highlight of the day and the main reason we came to this city was the Vino. Vines of Mendoza is an upper market wine bar but it conducts very reasonable wine tasting sessions, with chaperoned tasting notes. After learning about the local wines and the best way to taste them, we slid off our stools, enjoyed world class Argentine steak in local atmospheric fashion, before returning to the hostel (for complementary Vino of course) and finalised our plans for our trip into the Vin yards next to Mendoza.

A short bus ride out of Mendoza took us into the area known as Maipu. With its density of Vine yards a day trip cycling from establishment to establishment is very easy. Naturally we got off at the wrong stop and ended up walking a few kilometres in the wrong direction before finding our rental shop - keeping true to form. We grabbed a map and a bottle of water from the friendly locals and set off on the Ruta del Vino!
We cycled to the Vine Yard furthest away from our rental shop, on the way we couldn’t help but stop and admire one of the quintessential views that this continent has graced us with. Over the flat lowlands covered for kilometres in sumptuous vines rise, firstly, the green foot hills of the Andes, which gently cradle the lower rough rocky planes that turn into the rugged, snow capped centre piece that is, Aconcagua. As we sat a misted this splendour, we found ourselves a million miles away. Vista’s indescribable, we purged on the road edge, looked and realised that this is a place where a view takes a lifetime to study and even longer to fully appreciate. Under the gaze of such beauty my mind drifted back into the Andes and dreams of scaling Cerro Aconcagua soon surfaced another one to add to the list, it’s getting too long now….
As we cycled around Aconcagua and her accompanying sisters, the view would captivate us for the rest of the day and why wouldn’t it? Its probably one of the most sublime views I ever seen. Maybe even the greatest. Would you want to be anywhere else?

We arrived at our first Vine Yard, Bodega Carinae. French owned (made possible when the Peso crashed) this little estate provided us with an excellent tour and good wine tasting. Malbec is the flavour of these parts and the only soil in the world that allows this uva to be bottled as a singly. The results are pretty exquisite.
Directly over the road was one of many Olive Groves - Olivicola Laur. Another tour followed by an olive tasting opportunity displayed the quality of the produce on offer. Although the take home jar wasn’t up to the tasted standard.
Over the rest of the day we visited Vina el Cerno, Tempus Alba, La Rural and the home made chocolate delights of Historia Y Sabores. The Vine Yards ranged from the traditional to the modern, all unique in their own way.
Our favourite had to be an extremely charming old Winery - Familia Di Tommaso. One of the oldest and certainly the most picturesque that we visited. And the Vino? You’ll never find this quality at this price anywhere! The Malbec’s completely stole the show, usually blended with other grapes to add a darker colour and not used for flavour, here they are the gods of the soil, go out and find out for yourself!

After a day wine tasting we reluctantly returned to Mendoza and boarded our overnight bus back to Buenos Aires. Our last overnight journey was a treat. I’ve mentioned before that the bus services on this continent are of a high standard. So we took it to the extreme and bought the most expensive tickets available. For a reasonable price increase we had the luxury of leather seats that turned into flat beds, champagne service with two good hot meals complete with any drink you wish, our own personal entertainment system built into the seat in front and of course a communal game of bingo (the winner, winning wine). A pleasant and enjoyable end to the hours spent aboard the continents buses, which at times weren’t as comfortable as our final.

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