Mark and I arrived in Mendoza after a day of flights across Argentina. We´re pros at the traveling thing now, and LAN Airlines likes to play soundless shows on the TV monitors on the plane for the comfort of all passengers. I´ve never actually seen a modern show where you could understand what was happening without listening to it, but they picked the single best program for this purpose. Hilariously, this program has the opposite effect of keeping the plane quiet. After a 30 minute program, the entire plane is crying they are laughing so hard. Streams of tears were running down my face. Check out www.hahaha.com. Anyway, I digress.
A quick taxi ride through town from the airport reminds us we aren´t in beautiful Bariloche anymore. Mendoza has over 1 million people and is spread out over a long geographical area. The town has wide streets with huge leafy trees whose leaves are changing into autumn colors. The buildings are similar to the standard uninspiring Argentina architecture with crumbling sidewalks, graffiti, and bars on all the windows, but the parks are huge and green and happy people sit in outdoor cafes drinking mate and vino all day long.
We arrive at our destination – a family is hosting Mark and I for the week while we study Spanish here. Malena, the mother of the house, has cooked a wonderful chicken meal. The chicken is so soft and juicy it literally just FALLS off the bone and dissolves in your mouth. I can already tell I´m going to like it here! We are introduced to one of her sons, Deigo, that lives with her. He is 25 years old, is a psychologist, and only works 2 or 3 days a week. NICE. He speaks perfect English and has a sense of humor that we all enjoy. We also meet another couple, Kathy and Paul from , that are also guests here. They are young, in their mid 20´s maybe, and are traveling for over 1 year and have landed themselves a job on the Galapagos Islands teaching English (even though they don´t really speak Spanish). The house is warm and cozy, and Marlena couldn´t be more welcoming and loving. Its the first time since being in South America I feel truly at home. (well, except we are ONCE AGAIN sleeping in twin beds pushed together!)
Mark and I decide that we´ll get up early the next day for bike tour of the local vineyards and learn that Kathy and Paul have the same plans. So we´ve got new friends for the day!
An early morning greets us, we take the bus to Maipu (one of the local precincts jammed with vineyards), rent bikes, and take off into the morning heat. A ride on one of these bikes IMMEDIATELY makes us miss home and our bicycles. Mark´s bike made a hilarious clanking sound every third rotation of the pedals. The breaks on my bike didn´t work AT ALL. No matter, wine washes it all away! We rode our bikes down the dirt roads, underneath HUGE old-growth maple trees turning gold and brown and red, with 7000 meter Aconcagua looming behind the rows and rows and rows of grapes. It was enough to make us forget the passing cars were coming within inches of hitting us every time they went by.
It took us all day to visit 3 vineyards. The first was a small artisan vineyard named Bodega Viña El Cerno, where everything is done by hand. Everything. Our guide gives the 4 of us a tour of the process and cellars. We learn that one reason their wine is better is because it is made with love, and I actually believe her when she says this. We finish the tour with a tasting of 2 of their wines and an excellent lesson in how to taste. First you look at the color of the wine as it reflects on a white piece of paper. The pinker the wine, the younger it is, the redder, the older. Brown wine is bad and is more likely rancid or vinegar. Swirling the wine in the glass for a minute will wash the wine up the sides, and watching how it falls down the inside of the glass gives us more information on the wine. The thicker the legs, the younger the wine. Thinner legs mean an older wine. More legs (frequently occurring) mean there is more alcohol. Faster falling legs mean more sugar. It is also necessary to give the glass a good swirl for 10-15 seconds before smelling it in order to get the full fragrance. And tasting it involves a small sip, swirled around in your mouth from cheek to cheek, tongue tip to throat, then a quick swallow. THEN you take a drink from the wine to experience the full flavor.
We spend the next 15 minutes or so acting like we know what we´re doing, but I swear I can actually see and smell and taste the differences now. We bought one bottle of wine here and are hoping that it will survive a trip back to the states.
The next vineyard, a relic as far as vineyards go, was Bodega Familiar di Tommaso. This one was established in the mid 1800s. It has survived a few different owners, quite a few earthquakes, and of course at least one crisis economica. This tour was completely different, talking about the history of wine making, showing us the inside of the vats and how the fermentation process creates crystals on the vats, and how wine was made way-back-when. I didn´t like the wine as much, but then again I think my palette is affected by the experience, and at this tasting we were 4 in a group of about 30 people.
However, we did meet an interesting character here; an Argentinian that looked something like an ethnic Kenny Rogers and sounded like Aunt Jamiama and an Argentinian folk singer all rolled into one. Very little prompting on our part revealed the guy was a jazz banjo player who travelled the world and lived for a long time in New Orleans playing with a Jazz Band there. A latino playing the jazz banjo! Fabulous! Turns out he was a guide for a tour group, otherwise I would have followed this guy to the end of the earth – he was that interesting.
Our last vineyard, CarinaE was much larger than the other two, and also very different. We toured the vineyard and learned why Malbec is so popular here (perfect weather for malbecs). We sampled FIVE wines here and bought one more bottle for the road. Here we learned that they actually trim off grapes from the vine and throw them out to make the other grapes on the vine stronger…they say it helps keep their quality high.
It was a fabulous day, my only regret is that our backpacks weren´t big enough for entire cases of wine.
