Day 21 - Mendoza, Argentina

Day 21. Thursday, December 11.
We awaken to quite a nice little breakfast for being on a bus; or any other form of transportation for that matter. The meals are comparable to what one would expect in a first class international airline meal. Everything reported about the quality of bus travel in Argentina is to be believed. This 13 hour ride goes much quicker than ½ of the 9 hour plane ride to Santiago. But let’s not think about that just yet because we’ve still got another one of those to go. Taking this bus was a great idea. For less than the cost of a night in a hotel we got 2 really nice meals and saved about $700 in airfare. We get off the bus and Walter is waiting there with our name on his sign. He looks more like a Juan or a Hector, but we will call him Walter. He doesn’t speak any English, and yet on the way to the room we are able to determine that he will be back in ½ hour to pick us up for our wine tour that morning. He drops us off at our bed and breakfast inn, The Hotel Bohemian. The lady at the front desk / coffee table is very nice. We go to our room and brush our teeth, sponge bathe and change our clothes. We make it just in time for Denise to get some coffee in the dining room before Walter shows up with our tour guide for the day. When Todd booked the wine tours he had no idea that we were getting private tours. BONUS FEATURE! Once in the van he introduces himself as “Ricky, Ricardo, Richard, Rick but I am not Dick.” We both immediately think “Ba-Ba-Loo” and are able to remember his name easily. He is very warm and personable and full of information. Ricky Ricardo has a degree in winemaking with minors in English and Tourism. He explains to us that within the past decade (after Mendoza switched its mindset from quantity of wines produced to quality and became one of the top 5 wine regions in the world) the young people of the region have come to realize where the future is to be for employment in Mendoza. Tourism has grown dramatically in the past 5 years here. People like Francis Ford Coppola, Ward Lay of Frito-Lay and Julio Gallo are just a small number of people who have invested in new wineries in this region. The province of Mendoza has more than a thousand wineries, referred to as bodegas, 300 alone in the immediate area of the capital city of the same name. Many of these have gourmet restaurants, provide wine tours, and some even provide very comfortable boutique accommodations. But the destination is about to go big time. While the city has only one five star hotel, another five are set to open within a year. Yes, the Hiltons, Sheratons, Marriotts and more are under construction. America has proven to be the biggest boon to the tourism industry with over 60% of all wine tours provided going to Americans. Today, we are touring the wine region of Luján de Cuyo. Now that we have gotten to know each other we arrive at our first winery: Benegas Winery. We are met by the public relations person who leads the tour here. She speaks of the owner, her boss, and his philandering ancestral history. Having big mouths ourselves, we embrace this candor. We see the little museum area with ancient winemaking tools.
These are pretty cool. At one time these were state of the art pieces of equipment. Were these pieces of equipment well received in their day, we wonder, or were there wars like Elias Howe and Isaac Singer fighting over sewing machine patents? Wait! We’re here for the wine! We proceed down to the cellar where it is too dark to take pictures, even with the flash it’s just not working quite right. We see the storage barrels and giant concrete vats that look like dungeon prison cells.
This would be a great place to film a castle dungeon scene. We are then
shown the modern equipment where they make their production wines. Then we move on to the tasting. We try several of their high end wines; all named after the owners children – the legitimate ones anyway. We then drink our four sample glasses, served with palate cleansing goodies and good instruction on deciphering the characteristics of the wines. All four = YUM. Now it’s time to move on. We travel to the second winery, Tapiz winery. This is one of the Gallo brothers solo projects. It’s a very new, very state-of-the-art winery and we are taken on a tour of the facilities. We are told about the various pieces of equipment like the conveyors that separate the branches from the fruit and the big red washing machine looking thing that separates them at an even finer level.
We see the giant stainless vats that are only working at 40% capacity right now. All around the courtyard there are old oak barrels that are being used as garbage cans. If you look closely here (or enlarge the picture) you can see one next to the fourth post from the right across the way. We even get a peek at some winemakers working in the lab. This would
prove to be a rarity because of the time of the season we are there. We are then shown into the tasting room. Our Tapiz guide explains to us that from a distance, this building is designed to ape the contour of the Andes in the background. She shows us pictures reflecting this but, since there is a cloud cover over the mountains, we cannot see this first hand. During the tasting (all of them great by the way) we discover that by engaging our guides in conversation we are offered even more wine. YUM.
Next stop: lunch. We stop at Ruca Malen Vineyards where the big event

here is the lunch. This vineyard is owned by the same people who produce the popular Alta Vista wines. We are treated to a 5 course meal; each course served with perfectly paired wines. The food is every bit as spectacular as the wine. The Argentine beef main course is so incredibly tender. Great meal and great wines.
Our last winery of the day is the Carmelo Patti Winery. We are met here by the wife of the oldest Patti son. At this stop we do not tour the winemaking facilities, but rather the vineyards themselves. This place is so full of charm and beauty. Here, look for yourselves:

This is where we learn about the grape itself and not just the process. They also have olive trees all around the vineyards. these have a different harvest season than do the grapes so it provides olive oil sales during the off season for winemaking. Plus, the trees force the vines to fight for sun and water and make them stronger. By rationing the water supply to the vines, the fruit contains less diluting

water content and tougher skins for heartier tannins. It is an absolutely wonderful end of the first day here; after the tasting of their wines of course. None of their wines are exported out of the country, so we’re out of luck there. After “relaxing” at the room for a while it is now 6:30 and we’re off to go find some dinner. No luck – every place is closed. We walk down the main restaurant drag and see the same thing everywhere: Cerrado. So we stop at the park and decide to wait until after 8:00 when we predict things will begin to open. We are now at the Plaza Independencia. It’s a beautiful park and we just sit and talk about everything.

Light turns to dark in the square. We take a walk around it now that it has come to life and is all lit up. We observe yet more vendors selling their stuff: same stuff – different city. We walk back up the restaurant row and find a place that looks nice and comfortable. We are invited to sit at one of the sidewalk tables by one of the army of waiters outside the restaurant and we tell him we’d rather go inside. Does anyone really like a constant parade of people cruising past their dinner table during the meal? We order the 2 things that Carlos told us we needed to try while in Argentina: Bife de Chorizo (new York steak) and Provoletta (a deep fried provolone cheese appetizer in a wonderful sauce). Great advise Carlos amigo! We get one order of each and share. He also urged us to try Bolles de Toro. Not a chance dude. Back at the hotel we sit under the kaleidoscope light on the deck and ponder and enjoy.