Mendoza

I'm finally here!  It's almost the same feeling of elation I got at Machu Picchu, after reading and hearing about this place for so long and finally physically being here.  It's sunny, dry, and hot, and the city has a buena onda (good vibe) to it that's very attractive.  I got here yesterday afternoon, after a fourteen-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires.  I walked from the bus station to my hostel, and was immediately met by two very nice staff members that checked me in and explained all my options for tours of this and that.  I'm staying at Hostel Internacional Campo Base, which is nice in a few ways: it has the same kind of youthful and relaxed feel as Pariwana did in Perú, and it's cheaper than anything else I found in Mendoza.  Score.

This morning, I went on a wine bike tour, where our group was driven to a winery in nearby Maipu and dropped off with bikes, which we rode to the next two wineries.  My hostel collaborates with several others around the city, using the same tour company for everything they offer.  As a consequence, there were quite a few people on the tour, and they were from everywhere: Argentina, Ireland, Australia, Scotland, South Africa, Israel, Denmark, France, and the US.  The first winery we stopped at was the best one, called Bodega Cecchin.  It's an organic winery, which means that their grapes are grown in typical organic fashion without chemicals, and they also add much less to their wines.  Once you open a bottle, you have to drink it within two days, because there aren't any preservatives in it to keep it from getting bitter.  A typical bottle from them contains 30-40 parts sulfites, as compared to 150 parts in other commercial wines, and it actually makes a difference in the flavorfulness of the wine.  We tried three wines there: a rosé, a malbec, and a carignan.  The rosé smelled sweet, tasted spicy, and had an aftertaste of honey.  I don't think I've ever experienced so much different sensation and stimulation in one glass of wine, and it was the first one of the day.  Wow.  It surely set a tone for the rest of the day.  The other two wines were delicious as well, and I'm on a mission to buy some bottles in town and find a way to ship them or carry them with me.

We biked on to our next winery, a new one that just opened in 2007, called Vistandes.  In comparison with Cecchin, which had a rustic feel to it, Vistandes was more modern, explained by its age.  Everything used to process the grapes and start the fermentation process was stainless steel, which changes the flavor of the wine from the very start.  This winery made three different lines of wine, depending on how long they were aged, and whether or not they ever saw a wooden barrel.  The two wines that we sampled here, a rosé and a cabernet sauvignon, were from the middle-grade reserva line, fermented for an extra six months in an oak barrel after going through the basic fermentation process.  After the full flavors and bodies we tasted at Cecchin, these wines felt flat and light.  I'd be curious to try them again without the comparison to the organic wines we'd previously consumed, because I don't think they were given a fair chance.  The rosé faired better than the cab did, because it still had a nice element of spicy and sweet to it.  The cab tasted watery.  Bad wine or unfair circumstances?

The results were similar at our third bodega, Viña el Cerno.  At this one we weren't given a tour at all (boo) and were given one full glass of whichever wine we chose to try, rather than getting to sample a few.  I tried the malbec from their high-end gran reserva line, and while it was strong like a malbec ought to be, it was pretty bitter, and my first taste face must have looked somewhat concerning.  Again, I wonder how much of my impression of that wine was affected by the fact that I'd tasted five wines prior, starting with the best ones of the tour.  Just before leaving, myself and a couple other guys took a sample of a white wine, a torrontes, and it was much better; sweeter, flavorful, but not too strong.  Maybe I asked for an overpowering glass when I went for the gran reserva malbec.  Who knows.

My tour companions were a bit disappointed with the tour because they'd apparently been promised additional visits to an olive farm and a chocolate factory, in addition to the wineries.  I think their hostels gave them incorrect information, because as far as I knew, the wine bike tour I'd signed up for was exactly what we got (besides that they came to pick me up an hour later than I'd been told).  The poor tour guide had to field all their discontent and make phone calls to their respective hostels to arrange for some kind of compensation for the unhappy tourists.  Aside from the delay in starting, and consequently later ending than scheduled, I enjoyed myself; I met some really interesting people and got to go on a bike ride!  Always a good thing.

Tomorrow I hope to have a mountain day, going on a tour up into the Andes, seeing a few passes and lakes in addition to going to Aconcagua Regional Park.  I'd like to figure out how to do this without a tour and the price it commands, but I think it's too far away for me to manage.  Thus far, the Andes are hazily visible from Mendoza, but pretty far in the distance, and my Colorado heart just needs some good ole montañas.  Stay tuned for more adventures!

In the meantime, take a look at the pictures I've posted of Tigre, the Presidenta's inauguration (scroll partway down), and Mar del Plata.  Love, your aventurera who's getting impatient to get to Patagonia.