Drinks, Drinks and more Drinks
Thursday, September 25th, 2008Day 181
Mendoza is a lively city with wide tree lined avenues and some good restaurants. Sometimes it feels like you could be in Europe. That said the only real reason one visits Mendoza is for the wine grown just outside the city, and quite a few tourists are here just for that. This is one of the few times I have no problem following the tourist crowd.
Without our own car and arriving a bit late to organize bicycles yesterday, Jordana, Tom and I decided a tour was the best way to see the wineries. Tours, something else I don’t enjoy doing often. However the thought of being driven around while I tasted wine sounded good to me. At 2pm we were picked up at our hotel. The van was pretty full with tourists, most from latin America and a couple of sleepy dutch tourists. One who proceeded to snore loudly as our tour guide spoke about the things we were going to see. Since it was all in Spanish I was just about ready to join him.
Argentine wine is less known internationally than its neighbours in Chile and mostly of a lesser quality. However some wine experts believe that Argentina’s wines will soon surpass Chile’s in terms of quality due to the sunnier climate, cleaner air and richer soil. All I know is that the main grape here is Malbec and that reds are better than whites when it comes to Argentine wine. Oh and I also know that a decent bottle cost about $4 CAD!
First stop is Don Arturo, a small family run vineyard that only makes reds. We get a tour of the facility from a very passionate guide. The methods here a bit more traditional than the larger wineries I have seen back home but really its all the same to me. Except I don’t see any huge stainless-steel vats and definitely no computerised temperature controls. As interesting as it all was we were all happy to hear the time had come to do some tasting. We tried merlot, cabernet sauvignon, syrah and of course malbec. They were all pretty good but my favourite was the merlot or syrah. The fruity malbec just didn’t do it for me.
From Don Arturo, which to me sounds like some mafia head, so I sure wasn’t going to tell them what I really thought of the malbec. Anyway, after Don Arturo we stopped off at an olive oil manufacturer. Again we got a tour which was good but short and at the end stuffed our faces with bread, olive oil and sun dried tomatoes. Who knew guided tours were so tasty?! The olive oil was good but the olives just aren’t that great. They are a bit bitter and firm, maybe I’m just to picky. Then again I’m Greek, my people just know what a good olive is.
Next stop was more wine! Boudron, sounds French, no? Boudron is one of the bigger wineries in the area and it showed. Not only did it show in the size of the operation but our tour was much shorter and less personal. The most important part though was what did the wine taste like. We tried a fruity chardonnay, I like whites more than reds so I enjoyed it quite a bit. Also they made up for the short tour with very generous tastings. Next was a Temparanillo, a grape from Spain. Never had it before but it was great, smoky tasting and very full flavoured. Lastly was a good merlot. Boudron had good wine but the large tours there and lack of personal touch made Don Arturo the best of the day. Although the Temparanillo at Boudron was the best wine of the day, just don’t tell Don Arturo. He may come looking for me.
Our last stop was at a place that made chocolate and liquors. Some might call it heaven. It was run by a husband and wife who turned their hobby into this small business 6 years ago. We were explained all the different products that they make and then were able to select one shot to taste. What a way to end a day of wine tasting, with shots! Tom and I choose whiskey, Jordana chocolate liquor. The whiskey was like everything else in Argentina, way to sweet. Oh the sugars! Beside us the now awaken dutch tourist asked us if we wanted his shot. Absinthe, he smelled it and decided it wasn’t for him. Tom and I looked at each other. Both with the face of, “well you can’t turn down free drinks!” Sneaky Irish, they always seem to drag me to that “one too many” level. It felt like the bad decision of shots at the end of the night, except is was 5pm. I went first, oh god!! This was moonshine, not absinthe. Tom tried and thought the same. This was some serious stuff, my throat burnt for a good ten minutes after. My cold however was gone.
We finally got back into the city and while Jordana took a nap Tom and I decided to head out for some beer. Jordana and I are off tomorrow, south to Bariloche. Tom is flying to Buenos Aires, so it was our last night together. We talked football over beers and it felt like we had been friends for years, before we knew it the one hour we were to let Jordana sleep turned into just over 2. We returned to the hotel to pickup Jordana and headed to a patio for dinner. It was a fun last night together with Tom as we said our goodbyes. I looked forward to moving south again, even though the wine was pretty tasty.
Michael Coroneos