Onto the Bodegas!

After our adventure out to Mount Aconcagua, Joanna and I both agreed the perfect way to soothe those sore muscles was by making a tour of the bodegas around Mendoza. Something like 70% of the wine in Argentina is produced in Mendoza and it also happens to be one of the few spots in the world where Malbec grapes thrive.

We managed to figure out how to take the bus to the wine growing region of Lujan without too much trouble. Actually getting the bus, now that was another matter altogether. Apparently there was a protest march through the middle of Mendoza, about something or other and the bus routes were being diverted all over the place. The Argentineans sure do love marching and protesting. But somehow between our bad Spanish, handful of maps and the kindness of some very nice Argentineans we were eventually able to hop on the right bus.

Joanna is from the Bay Area and I think she had a picture of Napa Valley in her head. Lujan is nothing like Napa Valley. This became apparent when we realized the only people on the bus were the two of us and about 20 kids getting out of school. Lujan is a pretty residential neighborhood, that just happens to have a ton of bodegas scattered around town. The beautiful valley and surounding hills of Napa where no where to be seen.

We stopped into the first one we saw, a small family run affair. There were no tours to speak off but one of the operators of the bodega was nice enough to show us around through the operations and offer us some of their wares afterwards. We were both waiting for the high-pressure sales pitch afterwards, but instead all we got was a recommendation to a nice restaurant.

The next couple spots were fairly similar. Some larger, some smaller. But all very nice and set right in the middle of a streets full of kids playing and families walking around their neighborhood. But I got the feeling they were used to the tourists tramping through looking for the bodegas.

Towards the end of the day, after several glasses, I had to admit they all tasted the same. Fortunately enough that meant I thought they were fantastic. And somehow we were even able to figure out the bus to take back to the center of Mendoza with a little more help from a random Argentinean on the side of the road.

That evening Joanna and I headed for a nice dinner with my two best friends, a hunk of roasted animal flesh and a bottle of Malbec. But the evening proved to be a little bitter-sweet. Joanna was continuing on towards the south tomorrow. Something about there being some more glaciers to see. I was heading east, to San Luis, a tiny city near a great National Park I´d been reading about. We were going to meet up in Buenos Aires again for a couple of days before Joanna headed back to the US. After hanging out for the majority of a month together, and the last 5 days non-stop, it was strange to think about parting ways.

The trip to wine country was everything I hoped it would be. There´s something about a good Malbec I´ve loved ever since my first trip to Argentina. They have deep intense flavors but not nearly as powerful as a Merlot. And a good Malbec has a wonderfully soft finish. One second you´re enjoying all it has to offer, savoring the subtelties of it´s flavor, and then it´s gone with just barely a hint of a lingering aftertaste, and all you´re left with is the memory of a fine wine.