Wine Anyone?

So it turns out that even a Semi Cama bus changes everything. I made it to Mendoza in 17hrs as planned and since the trip went from 3.30pm to 8.30am it meant I could enjoy two movies being played on the bus in English and then throw back my seat and get a fair night´s sleep. I really do think I´ll need to take a Spanish class at some point because my first 10mins on the bus were spent in total confusion as I listened to the attendant read out numbers in Spanish as if he were a game show host, only to realize, at the very end of it all, that everyone was playing BINGO. Winner got a bottle of wine. Add it to the weird list. 

My first taste of Mendoza was a horseback ride. Met Fiona who is Irish and joined her on a 2.5hr ride around the mountains and then had an asado (BBQ) as the sun set back at the ranch. Back at the hostel they give you a free glass of wine each evening, access to do laundry using their machines (soap included), plus a 15min international phone call every day.  Pretty amazing deal I took full advantage of.

I´m not sure if I mentioned this yet but about 4 years ago I had dinner with Beth at a Tapas restaurant on College street in Toronto. It was that evening when I experienced the best glass of wine I had ever tasted, and so,Weinert wine is a good portion of the reason I wanted to visit South America. Seemed like a good goal to try to find the vineyard that drove me to drink Malbecs exclusively for years and to better understand what people are talking about when they say a wine is truly wonderful and not just good.
I tried to go to the Weinert bodega on my first full day here but it is more of a boutique establishment and requires a private driver to take you, plus it was yet another bank holiday in this country, so they weren´t answering the phone.  With all of that considered, 7 of us took the local bus to the Maipu area where we rented bikes from "Mr Hugo" for 35 AR pesos... the equivalent of $8 CND and biked to three other vineyards for our first day in town.

The first was called Tempus Alba and was pretty modern - reminded me a little of Cape Town, South Africa. 

Each of us sampled three wines and I voted that the "blush" was the best. Am I making you thirsty?

Next was Vina el Cerno an older style bodega that seemed more in tune with the area... here we got one full glass of wine each for 15 AR pesos which is about $3.5 dollars and shared.
Wonder if that is how I got this sore throat or if I can instead blame that on the fact that almost all the people at my hostel smoke. Miz. It is such a score to live in a city and have friends who are not smokers. Avoiding the cloud is something I remember from growing up in Montreal and I just can´t believe people still do it.   

We´ve taken to trying to offer a creative word to describe the different wines we tasted through the day. Things like sharp, long and soft, a dusting of soil ... you get the idea. Honestly I don´t think I know how to describe a bouquet or flavour well enough and after the first three I started to come up short of something new to say and truthfully felt like they were melding into almost one flavour by wine 10 with zero food in my stomach.       

Kids do not try this at home.



Last stop was a bodega called Carinea. It is owned by a french couple but the most important part of visiting this place, for me, was the fact that we got some cheese, salami and a chance to sample the olive oil with some bread, having not eaten since breakfast.

On day two I finally got to share the cost of a hired private driver with two British friends (Lisa and Helm) I met back in Bariloche (who showed up here to my surprise last night) and headed to some vineyards in the Lujan de Cuyo area of Mendoza including Weinert.

Started at Vistandes Bodega, which was opened only 3 years ago and had the most modern of equipment.

  

And some pretty nice views too

Followed that up with an organic bodega called Cecchin with the most obnoxious guide ever.. and I quote      ¨this wine is what I take on every date I go on and it never fails me¨ or  ¨this wine represents world peace¨- thanks Ron Burgundy. I mean what a jackass. The place did offer a great gnocchi at their outdoor restaurant in the center of the vineyard. Sorry Foxy no gnocchi photo taken.

Then it was on to the ¨piece de resistance¨ of my day. Weinert. The oldest of the vineyards I visited in the two days I think. The building is beautiful and the tour through the basement cellars was outstanding. Their most expensive bottle of wine is a 35yr old Malbec that costs 3,000 pesos and there are only 500 bottles left in the cellars.  I don´t need to tell you that I did not purchase one of those but I will admit to having been tempted... for a milli-second. Then I bought some more reasonable bottles.

I am almost positive it was a 2004 Malbec that I had in 2008 on College street with Monte so I just had to take one photo standing next to this little baby.  Pretty amazing experience to have traveled all the way here after so long. I should try to keep creating these little missions. Makes the experience that much more exciting and the arrival that more sweet. Well, maybe the fact that wine was waiting for me at this stop had something to do with that.

It just doesn´t seem right to finish an entry without a few images that reflect the local scene in each given place I visit so I think I´ll wrap up with two posters I have walked by numerous times through my four days in  Mendoza.

The first I think is for a language school but I feel like they are calling their students idiots though I´m sure IDIO+ means something very encouraging and friendly in reality or at least in Spanish???


The next is from McDonalds and makes me miss my Latina pal Jess soooo much.  Seems you can get two empinadas and a bottle of Malbec as a combo deal here in Mendoza. 


Makes it almost seem okay to eat there but not quite.

As always I hope everyone is well.
Much Love. b