Mendoza: Wine country is good country

       It took 28 hours and all the vegetative and geological landscapes that Southern South America has to offer to get from Montevideo to Mendoza.  We changed buses and bought new tickets in Cordoba and honestly I wouldn’t recommend doing the whole trip in one go, but when you book your hostels before you learn the  bus schedules, you’ve gotta get there.  As you can imagine we arrived at our hostel in Mendoza in a weary, zombiesque state, ready for our 2 bed dorm room and the promised free glass of wine that attracted us to our hostel.  On the glass of wine the hostel delivered admirably, on the room not so much.  We were put in a room with single bunk beds that took up over half the room’s space.  If our room was a shoebox the shared bathroom was a jewelry box.  And the wifi didn’t work all week, not our best accommodation.

The next day we wandered around Mendoza.  It’s a lovely, comparatively affluent city, with short terraced houses lining streets with irrigation ditches between every sidewalk and road.  It’s treelined, dry, and dotted with square parks.  We ate some delicious lomo (steak loin, not ground meat) burgers that made Amanda sick at what looked like a popular burger restaurant downtown.  Later we made plans with fellow travelers to visit the wineries the next day.

The next day we set off with Ethan and Hannah, a brother sister duo from Washington State, Jess, an Australian girl who had been making the South American circuit for five months and was flying home from Santiago only two days later, and Sarah, a Korean traveler who was shocked with our “fluency” in Hangul.  Ethan and Hannah lead the way as we got on the city bus to the neighboring winery town of Maipu and rented bikes for what in other places might seem like a bad idea (getting drunk and sharing a narrow two lane road with big rigs and oil tankers) but in South America is just how we roll.

Our first stop was the free wine museum which had a bunch of ancient wine making implements explained in Spanish and a house wine to sample.  Down the road was a small store with boutique liquors, spreads, and olive oil.  For 15 pesos ($3.75) each we sampled as much olive oil, tapenade, and dulce de leche spread as we wanted.  Then we each had an opportunity to take a shot of whatever liquor we wanted.  Jess, Ethan and I chose the only liquor that it was sensible to try while riding bikes around rural Argentina, Absinthe made with real wormwood at 75% alcohol.  They set it up right, with spoons on fire and all, and it burned the whole way down our esophagi but it was worth it to feel like Tolouse Lautrec. 

 
Hannah chose a girly liqueur and Sarah being the trooper that she is tried the other one I would have liked to try, the other frightening green liquid called Russian Death.  It was made with green peppers and its deliciousness was written all over her face after she took the shot.  Amanda abstained as the sandwich from yesterday was still not treating her well.

 
We wandered through a strangely green day on to an outdoor artisanal beer garten run by some Argentinian hippie brewers.  Then to a family farm with rabbits and birds and wine and olives and peaches and almonds all explained to us very enthusiastically in Spanish by a bright little middle-aged woman, and mostly translated to us by Jess whose Spanish abilities were by far the most advanced of the group.  For another 15 pesos we received a tour, a delicious meat empanada, a glass of wine and a tasting of some of the farm’s more olive based products.  Amanda and I ended up buying a bag of almonds from the tree in the backyard.  How quaint.

Finally, we rode up the main road for what seemed like ever to an old winery which no longer produces wine because it’s an old protected building.  We were guided for the first time through the wine making and aging process, and given the etymology of Malbec, THE grape of Argentina.  It means ‘bad grapes’ because it’s only good in a very arid environment which France does not have.  We sampled this grape of grapes and a nice oak aged Cab, ate at the winery a bit over our budget, and returned to the bike rental place for a last glass of wine.  We hope to see Ethan and Hannah again as we might end up in Bolivia at the same time.

Everyone left either that night or the next morning, and since none of the mountain tours really struck our fancy we decided to go back to the wineries with a tour in a van this time.  It was only 60 pesos inclusive and we visited two wineries, an olive oil factory, and a liqueur and spread store.  The tour in the van was entirely in Spanish and very international.  There were Argentinians, Brazilians, Venezuelans, and two other English speakers, an English/Australian couple.  The guide asked us where we were from individually and when we said, de los Estados Unidos, we got a hearty cheer from the Venezuelans; they must not have been Chavez fans.  

Dan loves Absinthe!

At each place we had either a bilingual tour guide or a separate tour guide for the English speakers, and it was pretty much a rehash of the previous day, but well worth it for the wine we were able to taste.  The second winery was a particular treat.  A boutique winery down a dusty road from an old church on a crossroads in the shadow of the Andes, it grew only red wines, Malbec, Cab, Merlot, and Syrah.  The youngest wine it let out of its doors was from 2006 and for only 25 pesos ($6.25) we were able to buy a 2004 Malbec grown and fermented on the premises.  We drank it that night because Chile doesn’t let you bring anything into their country.

                                            

And so the next day we took our leave of Mendoza and Argentina for Valparaiso and Chile.  It promises to be a wonderful ride over the Andes and I’m chuckling inside at the idea of seeing the Atlantic in Montevideo less than a week ago.  It seems premature to say goodbye to Mendoza.  It’s a wonderful city and a great travel destination for penny pinchers who love wine and tree lined boulevards.