red, red wine

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“Okay, your room is on the third floor, end of the corridor. Here is your key, the remote control and your complementary bottle of wine.” The receptionist handed me a bottle, smiling blandly. Taking my bags, I looked down at the bottle of Malbec, surprised. Only paying 8 pounds for a double room, I was just looking forward to a bed and clean towels.

I arrived in Mendoza, heart of wine country, from a spectacular six hour bus journey which crossed the Andes and passed from Chile into the land of tango, beef and the disgraced golden boy, whose five digits have gone down in English football legend. Although I have been enjoying living in Chile, I was looking forward to seeing another South American country, even though I knew that with only five weeks I might only be able to scratch its surface.

The streets were still hot when I headed out at 11pm to look for somewhere to eat. Being English, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was a little bit too late for a restaurant. It was a Sunday afterall. However, the city was buzzing with life and I wandered about, marvelling at the full ice cream parlours and the laughing Argentineans crammed onto chairs and sofas laid out on the pavement, enjoying drinks and the balmy night. I soon found a restaurant with a large parrilla (grill) where flickering flames were gently heating the largest pieces of meat I’ve seen.

The next day, I caught a bus to nearby Maipu to tour one of the many bodegas in the region. Walking around the dry town centre, it is hard to believe this is the centre of Argentine wine production but thanks to irrigation techniques which were introduced by native Huarpe Indians, river-fed aquaducts help Mendoza to produce almost three quarters of the country’s wine. Many of the wineries are still small and family run but there are some more high-tech establishments like Norton and La Agricola who have been improving wine-making technology and have began to export internationally. I visited one of the older wineries, ‘Bodega Giol’ and took a free tour which mainly centred around a large barrel which had been won by the winery in France 1910.

Just before leaving Mendoza, I took a trip into the countryside with Argentine Rafting Expedicions and spent a very exhilarating two hours being tossed around on the Rio Mendoza while the dredlocked guide from Brasil, shouted commands like “right”, “left back”, “get down” and “right side”. The latter being an instruction for all members on the raft to throw themselves on one side to attempt being thrown into the frothy water.

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