The Wine Country (Again)

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Hola,

We were able to leave Santiago the next day and we arrived in Mendoza on schedule. We checked into Hostel Lao, which is run by and Englishman who married a local woman. We also met Herman, who is one of the staff there and perhaps the nicest person ever, showed us to our room. The hostel is a converted house and there are hammocks, a barbecue pit and even a pool!

Since we were in wine country, we wanted to enjoy some of the wines of the area. Us, along with an Australian couple, Naomi and Shane, took a bus to the Lujan de Cuyo region south of the city, which is where many good Argentinian wines come from. Once there, we rented bikes and were given a map and sent off to find the various wineries. The first one we visited was a medium sized one called Alta Vista. It was in a beautiful setting, surrounded by vines and backed by the mountains. There were also cute little animals running around the front yard that looked like a mix of rabbits and guinea pigs. We had a tour of the facilities and we got to taste three wines. They were good, but not amazing. This would become the theme of the day. Our next winery was Carmelo Patti, which is a small family run winery and we got to meet the owner and his daughter. Unfortunately, we did not enjoy their wine too much but we did look in the guest book and saw that a couple who worked at the Hys Steakhouse in Whistler had been there a couple of days before us. Our thrid winery was called Weinert. It had a massive oak cask that was built in 1940 in Alsace that was the largest one in Argentina. To give a concept of the size, think of how tall Peter is, then multiply that by four and one gets the diameter of the cask! There was an excellent lunch that we had as well, and we had a nice tempranillo with it. The last winery of the day was Pulmary, and it was also a little family one. We got a tour of the facilities with one of the sons. He introduced us to his wiener dog "Pancho", which of course means "hot dog" in English. The cool thing about the winery was that we got to have wine right from the cask. He opened up one of the hoses and we just held our glasses underneath it. The day was enjoyable overall, but the wines were not as good as anticipated.

As a result of our mild dissapointment from the day before, we wanted to taste some better wines so we were able to book a tour through the hostel that basically afforded us a driver, car, entry, tours and tastings at three excellent wineries. We were joined on the tour by Nell and Darren, and English couple. The first winery we visited was Bodega Kaiken. We got to tour the facilities, as well as the view the vines and grapes and then we got to sit in their outdoor gazebo, overlooking the mountains, and taste three excellent wines, including one of the better roses that either of us had tasted. The next winery was Ruca Malen. We were on a bit of a mass market tour, but we were treated to a five course lunch, which was excellent, and it was complemented with six wine pairings. The Syrrah and the Malbec were particularly good. The third winery we visited was Bodega Pulmera. It was run by a family of wealthy Argentinians who did nothing but make wine, import fast cars and then race them. What a life! Our guide for the tour was named Michelle, and she was actually from the USA. She had moved to Mendoza to work on her spanish and had been there for the last three years and now worked at the winery full time, giving tours and being a guinea pig for the wine scientists to try their blends on. It sounded like quite the job! We had our tasting in an underground room that resembled a pyramid with a small glass skylight in the top. It felt like a bunker in there, but in a good way. There, we got to taste a Pinot Noir from the Valle de Uco, which is the up and coming valley for wine production in the region. The elevation is higher and it is closer to the mountains so the temperature shift is greater, thus causing the grapes to hold more flavour! This became very apparent when we tasted the wine. That night, on Darren's insistence, we went to Don Mario's, which is supposed to be the best steakhouse in the city. When they brought out meat to us, it wasn't so much a steak, but a loaf of meat. Not a meatloaf, but a loaf of meat! It was tasty, but not the best steak that we have had in Argentina. It was an excellent day with some excellent wine.

There are two dogs that live at the hostel named Bambina and Astor. Bambina likes to take people's half empty plastic water bottles and bring them back thoroughly chewed. Astor, who is the largest Alsatian ever, likes to place toss with a stick, a piece of grass or a leaf, whichever he is in the mood for. If you does not throw the leaf, then he pokes you with his paw until you do.

On our last couple of days we just wandered around Mendoza. The problem with that is that there isn't really a lot to see in Mendoza. There are some nice plazas, including Plaza España which has beautifully coloured tiles throughout it, but other than those, there is not a lot to see and do.

We then got ready for our 17 hour bus ride to Bariolche. We were excited. That last sentence is DRIPPING with sarcasm.


Bye for now,
Peter and Valerie

Things we learned in Mendoza:
-Biking and consuming wine is not as challenging as one would think
-We both received more mosquito bites in the city than anywhere else on our trip since the Amazon
-Wine flavoured ice cream in Mendoza is not as strong as its counter-part in Cafayate

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Comments

[Katrina]

Gosh, from all these wine tasting stories, I am actually starting to picture you as a very refined young man! I am sure my image of you will snap back to reality when you get back... :D It sounds like you guys are enjoying yourselves!