Mendoza, Part 2: Malbec! Malbec! Malbec!

So, yeah. Mendoza. Wine country. We had some wonderful moments, but I’ll admit I wasn’t as blown away as I anticipated. I hope Argentina doesn't put me on some sort of watch list for saying it. Mendoza gets talked up big time by travelers making their way through this part of the world. What didn’t I get?! Was I missing something?!

The vineyards were the best part of the trip, but we really couldn’t afford more than a day doing that. Besides, we went on a Saturday, and stupidly enough, a lot of the vineyards are closed that day (even though we were surrounded by tons of spendthrift-y foreign travelers. Foolish of the wineries to miss out on all those potential pesos). And since Saturday and Sunday were our two full days there (and EVERYTHING is apparently closed on Sunday), we could really only spend one day doing wine tours.

The vineyards are actually in a town outside of Mendoza called Maipu. Mendoza itself was crappy. It’s a medium sized town (150,000) with the most boring architecture EVER –which is saying something in awesome Latin America (apparently all the cool stuff was wiped away by an earthquake in the 1960s). There are two good things about Mendoza. The first is the food. The province of Mendoza is full of Italians and people of Italian ancestry (instead of Spanish). Thus, there’s a ton of good homemade pasta, cheeses, and pizza (which is all good with wine!).

The second cool thing about Mendoza is the sycamore canopies lining a lot of the streets, like the one below:















Other than that, it was chock full of forgettable plaza/parks (expect for one—I’m sitting on a bench there below), low-quality crap stores, and contrived bars luring the jovenes (young peeps). Wow, I’m really talking it up, huh?







So, let’s focus on the high point: WINE! We rented bikes in Maipu to get to the vineyards. In theory, this is a romantic, beautiful way to wine-hop. And it was fun (after I had a little wine and food flowing through me). The bikes were in poor condition, the road leading to the vineyards was crazy busy with big fast-moving vehicles, and the sun was hot. In addition, the whole bike trip was an unexpected 20+ kilometers (in other words, it was a pretty hefty ride).

Wow, I keep reverting to negative! Seriously, let’s get to the good stuff, right?!

Okay, so our first stop was at San Felipe. San Felipe is a big, mass-producing winery. The cool thing about visiting this place was that they give free and very comprehensive tours of their facilities, which includes loads of wine-making artifacts of the 19th century.

At the end of the tour, we tasted a Cabernet that they sell only to people visiting the winery. It was not good. So obviously sellable only with gimmick attached (get it while you're here!). The tour was very interesting, though.

Hectares and hectares of vine canopy. So beautiful:



















Dehydrated, spongy grape refuse, fresh off the conveyor belt. It smelled really good.



















The next winery we visited was Carinae. This is a very cute small-scale winery run by French expats. Again, we got a tour. It was cool to contrast their facilities with the ones from San Felipe. At the end of the tour, we could buy a couple tastings for a very good price. I enjoyed all the wines we tried there, especially a smooth, earthy, buttery Cab-Malbec blend that was only available for purchase at the winery (not gimmicky in this case, but expensive). At the end, we walked away with a Malbec Rose and a Torrontes (Torrontes is a white wine that is a kind of an Argentinean specialty). This was a fun tasting, because in addition to the truly lovely wines, they served an amazing crusty baguette and a house-made olive oil. Carinae was a definite highlight.

The olive trees were gorgeous, though be forewarned; unripe raw olives taste horrific. Tried and true! Please, please take my word for it!



















The oak barrels smell so good. They cost the winery $900 apiece and are sold after only one use (for the best wine--el gran reservo)



















Carinae's beautiful facilities:

We like to pretend that we know what we're doing:



















Side note: We happened to do the Carinae tasting with a loquacious UT undergrad who is studying in Buenos Aires but was visiting Mendoza for the weekend. Hook 'em! (or something).

After that, we had lunch at Tommaso. This is the oldest winery in Mendoza (a couple hundred years old). It was a cute, unassuming place (with vegetarian options on the menu!). Matt had amazing spinach and four cheese canelones, and I enjoyed a lovely corn and red pepper pie. We polished off a bottle of their Torrontes with this meal (it paired especially well with Matt’s dish).

We devoured fresh, lovely olive oil and delectable bread all weekend:














Matt's plate:















Mine:














The wine:



















So, there you go. Would I have gone, knowing what I know now? That's a definite maybe. It was cool to experience and be surrounded by a world-famous wine country. But, would I do things differently, knowing what I know now? Definitely. If you venture out this way, don’t go to Mendoza on the weekend. And my advice to myself: don’t go thinking that just because other people love it, that means it's going to be the most amazing place EVER. That does not oft work well, those pesky great expectations. Lesson learned.