Finally, the Semana Santa (week before Easter) rush was over and we were able to make our way to Mendoza to see where all of this delicious wine was being produced. We ended up staying in a posada about 30 minutes outside of the city of Mendoza in a town called Maipu. This was a much welcomed change from busy Buenos Aires. The posada was a great find...14 hectacres owned by a helpful Belgium guy and his girlfriend, complete with a small vineyard, olive orchard, and guard dog named Tommy.
Our first full day in town, we decided to rent bicycles and taste at a few of the local family run wineries...by the way, there are tons! The ride was beautiful and each stop had something different to offer.
The first bodega (spanish for winery) showed us the old facilities from where they made wine back in the day.
The second bodega was a French owned and had been revived after 30 years of abandonment. The sommelier here was very educational and the wine was fantastic...apparently, the French have a knack for this kind of thing.
Our last tasting stop for the day was the Tapaus distillery. The actual building and facililty we absolutely gorgeous! It was interesting to see that no part of the grape goes unused. After the wineries are done with the skins and seeds, the distilleries used these parts to make their product...liquor. After the tour, we also were able to try a bit of grappa (a popular liquor down here) and some other flavored liquors.
After a full ride and an afternoon of wine and liquor, it was time to get some lunch. We cycled back towards our posada and had lunch at Domaine Du Mont. This was a beautiful colonial house just recently purchased by a Canadian family. The food was great and Harmony was finally able to get a taste of that purple drink.
While cycling was fun, we wanted to get our taste buds on more wines. Hence, we rented a car the second day so that we could cover more ground and visit more bodegas. We made an effort to taste at a couple of the larger wine producers in the area (i.e. Norton), but unforntunately reservations were required. This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because instead of being herded around in a large group, we were able to visit more family run wineries and get spoiled with personalized tours and tastings. We were even able to help label and seal a couple bottles of wine at a small artisan winery. I think we all agreed that the smaller bodegas were much more beautiful and it was a pleasure to taste great wines at a ridiculously low price. To top it off most are only available in the region if not only sold from the bodega.
That evening we had an appointment to ride some horses with Cesar the gaucho. Once again, we hadn't had time to squeeze in food with tasting so we stopped by the market and grabbed some snacks and beer for a pre-horseride tailgate. Cesar turned out to be a great guy and we had a wonderful ride through wine vineyards and down a riverbed while watching the sunset. Not a bad way to finish up a great day!
The following day was to be our last with Harmony and Ryan. We decided we could all use a little R & R after a seriously jam-packed two weeks. A day at the Termas Cacheuta hit the spot. The facility was complete with massages, mud, lunch buffet, and thermal pools all situated in a canyon overlooking the beautiful Rio Mendoza.
It's going to be hard to get back on the backpacker trail after being spoiled with great food, wine, and especially great friends for the last two weeks.
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