I woke up this morning and wasn’t especially hungry after the massive amount of food last night, so I limited myself to a small pastry and tea at breakfast.
That was perhaps not the best decision I’ve ever made. Today, you see, was a day for wine tasting and lunch.
I hadn’t signed up for this long ago – perhaps a week. One of the things I’ve noticed on Viator is that many agencies require a minimum of 2 participants, but this tour was an exception. I learned 2 days ago that I was the only person who had signed up. They tried several times to get me onto a different tour, but my other dates were occupied and the other option they offered of horseback riding, which I did yesterday.
Ultimately the agency decided there was no better choice, and I headed out in a truck with Federico as my guide today and Diego as my driver.
Federico is a broad smiled exuberant man with sandy brown, densely curled hair that he keeps trimmed short. I get the sense he really enjoys his wine. As we drove out into the Mendoza wine country, he described the region to me, talking of the neighborhoods in area. He pointed to the local soccer stadium, which also houses his son’s school. He is clearly proud of his country, and with good cause.
He points out that 80% of the wineries here are foreign owned, and only 20% of producers are local.
The first winery we visited is locally owned, by an Italian immigrant grandfather.
They give me a tour of the grounds, and the representative points out that they use old methods of flooding for irrigation here, although most other wineries have since moved to more efficient drip irrigation.
Rose bushes are planted everywhere, she states, because if disease is coming, the roses will show it first.
I am not fully convinced of this.
Interestingly she points out that some of the locally prominent grape varieties are no longer produced in Europe because they were decimated by phylloxera. She also says there is no phylloxera here and that they don’t use grafted rootstock but other vintners told me otherwise, which leads me to question her veracity.
I tasted 4 glasses here.
The second winery is larger and was purchased by a Californian in the mid 2000s. They have 4 vineyards scattered across the valley.
The guide showed me the massive vats that were once used for wine production. They were only supposed to be used for 5 seasons but were used for many more and now house racks of wine bottles and exclusive tasting rooms. The walls are a mottled shade of deep purple, bordering on black.
He also shows me the oldest bottles they have in storage, from the first years of production under new ownership.
They will not sell these bottles. I suspect they aren’t very good.
I had 4 more glasses here.
The last winery is where I had lunch. This is owned by the Chandon group.
We arrived ahead of schedule. I was wondering if I was moving too slow, but clearly I was moving faster than a larger group would.
The operations here are larger, and I suspect they are more experimental.
The outdoor kitchen they have built is beautiful and fully part of the experience.
Lunch started with empanadas baked in the outdoor oven. I had two of them – they were the best I had so far, with a sweet spicy meat filling.
The chef let me choose my steak – it was a massive ribeye that he grilled to a perfect medium rare, with only a scarce bit of char. It was served with potatoes and salad. I enjoyed some of the former but eschewed the salad – it just isn’t my thing, and the steak was absolutely massive.
I had 4 more glasses of wine here, so when Diego and Federico dropped me back at my hotel I promptly fell asleep for 2 hours.
Well into the afternoon I headed back into the Mendoza evening.
I first went to the Plaza de Italia, where the central statue / fountain includes a depiction of Hades, Persphone, Charon, and Cerberus. I found this to be an unusual choice of subject matter. For one, we don’t often see these figures presented in sculpture. Further, although they are also found in Roman mythology (the former two as Plato and Proserpina), they originated in Greek mythology.
I’ve been listening to the music of Hadestown quite a bit lately, so I enjoyed seeing this.
I continued into the night. I wasn’t truly hungry, but as I strolled aimlessly down a street packed with restaurants and bars, where viewers were gathered to watch a soccer match, I found gelato.
This was the one thing I wanted: dinner tonight was gelato.
And all was right with the world.
butterblogger 