An almost perfect day
I decided to stay in Mendoza for a few more days after all, and yesterday had the most delectable day with a lovely English girl from my dorm. We went to the Maipu wine region, which is about forty minutes by bus from here, on local transit. From there we rented bikes (yes, me, on a bike, believe it or not!) and were given a map and instructions for five vineyards, an olive farm and a chocolate factory. We decided that we would bike the several kilometres to the last vineyard, check into the olive gift shop for additions to our picnic supplies, head across the road to the vineyard, do a tasting, buy a bottle of wine and have our lunch, and then cycle back up through the other vineyards and to the chocolate place last, as dessert. A perfect plan!
The road was lovely -- mostly flat (yay for that), with big trees on either side shading the road, in places meeting overhead and creating a shaded tunnel to ride through. Beautiful. The olive people were on lunch break when we arrived, so we decided to just buy some black olive tapenade, and some sun dried tomatoes and head to the vineyard across the road for the first tasting of the day. The wine there was nice -- we had a malbec rosé, a malbec/cabernet sauvignon mix (an exclusive bottling that is only available at the vineyard) and then a more complex aged ¨prestige¨ wine as the third and final sip. Andrea and I both liked the second wine enough to choose it for our luncheon. The winery staff were kind enough to open the bottle, provide glasses, plates and forks for our picnic, and give us permission to eat at their picnic tables in a lovely shaded grove. Perfection! We had brought cheese, baguette and some salami and proscuitto with us, and added to that the really excellent supplies from the olive place (we ate the whole jar of sundried tomatoes they were so good!). For dessert we had fresh local stawberries and cherries. So good! We lingered over our food and wine until almost 3pm, at which point we packed up and headed up the road again to visit another winery, and then the chocolate factory. After the second winery we both felt we´d done enough tasting -- it was nice to be with someone who felt the same as me about red wine, sun and mid-day drinking...
The only not perfect point in the day was near the end, before the chocolate factory. I´d moved off the road to make room for a bus and I misjudged the angle of the tire when I tried to get back on the asphalt. I wiped out in the middle of the road (fortunately there was no traffic at that moment!) and took the end of my ring finger off (which because of shock I guess, I only realised when it started to bleed profusely) and skinned my knee. Mostly I bruised my pride more than anything else, though the finger is sore and makes typing difficult now. Sigh. Oh well.
The chocolate factory was quite good -- the also make a range of interesting liqueurs and preserves. We did a tasting there as well, and I bought a small bar of mint black chocolate. We returned our bikes to Mr. Hugo´s, he gave us another glass of wine as a gift and we eventually made our way back to Mendoza. The evening passed drinking the other half of our lunch bottle and chatting over salad and luncheon leftovers with other people in the hostel. Awesome day!
Today I wandered about the city, bought my ticket to Bariloche for tomorrow night, and then went this evening with Andrea to the new Bond movie (which was fun, light entertainment...). Not sure what the rest of the evening holds, beyond dinner!
And Leela, I have luncheon shots -- I promise I´ll post them next time!
The road was lovely -- mostly flat (yay for that), with big trees on either side shading the road, in places meeting overhead and creating a shaded tunnel to ride through. Beautiful. The olive people were on lunch break when we arrived, so we decided to just buy some black olive tapenade, and some sun dried tomatoes and head to the vineyard across the road for the first tasting of the day. The wine there was nice -- we had a malbec rosé, a malbec/cabernet sauvignon mix (an exclusive bottling that is only available at the vineyard) and then a more complex aged ¨prestige¨ wine as the third and final sip. Andrea and I both liked the second wine enough to choose it for our luncheon. The winery staff were kind enough to open the bottle, provide glasses, plates and forks for our picnic, and give us permission to eat at their picnic tables in a lovely shaded grove. Perfection! We had brought cheese, baguette and some salami and proscuitto with us, and added to that the really excellent supplies from the olive place (we ate the whole jar of sundried tomatoes they were so good!). For dessert we had fresh local stawberries and cherries. So good! We lingered over our food and wine until almost 3pm, at which point we packed up and headed up the road again to visit another winery, and then the chocolate factory. After the second winery we both felt we´d done enough tasting -- it was nice to be with someone who felt the same as me about red wine, sun and mid-day drinking...
The only not perfect point in the day was near the end, before the chocolate factory. I´d moved off the road to make room for a bus and I misjudged the angle of the tire when I tried to get back on the asphalt. I wiped out in the middle of the road (fortunately there was no traffic at that moment!) and took the end of my ring finger off (which because of shock I guess, I only realised when it started to bleed profusely) and skinned my knee. Mostly I bruised my pride more than anything else, though the finger is sore and makes typing difficult now. Sigh. Oh well.
The chocolate factory was quite good -- the also make a range of interesting liqueurs and preserves. We did a tasting there as well, and I bought a small bar of mint black chocolate. We returned our bikes to Mr. Hugo´s, he gave us another glass of wine as a gift and we eventually made our way back to Mendoza. The evening passed drinking the other half of our lunch bottle and chatting over salad and luncheon leftovers with other people in the hostel. Awesome day!
Today I wandered about the city, bought my ticket to Bariloche for tomorrow night, and then went this evening with Andrea to the new Bond movie (which was fun, light entertainment...). Not sure what the rest of the evening holds, beyond dinner!
And Leela, I have luncheon shots -- I promise I´ll post them next time!
Comments
We miss you around this part of the world and look forward to your return, though I am sure that the idea of coming back provides you with some mixed feelings.
Love you tonnes,
Nicola