Saturday, March 24, 2007

Mendoza - wineries!





Is not as incredibly fascinating as I hoped, to be honest it was more of a big colonial city. Some parts were beautiful yes, with the posh neighbourhoods, expansive plaza´s and lovely buildings with sidewalk cafes but there was something lacking. I think Lee and I have begun to like the small towns more, with their quaint and quiet charm - plus you feel more secure. there is something contrived about the big cities, however this comment does not include Buenos Aires. That city has a charm of its´own.

So we hired another cool tandem bike and did a bike tour of 3 bodegas (wineries), the company that rents out the bikes was called Bikes and Wines, so even as you get drunk the pedaling keeps you more or less sober plus if you´re going to wobble off - all you´ll hit is a tree, fall into a vineyard or crash into another bikes and wines biker.

The bodegas were really educational, not to mention slightly hazy with all the tasting, however I have to say that the more industrial ones with the big steel vats, coloured dials blinking and tubes whirring did rip the romance out of it all. There was one bodega which was the oldest functioning one in Argentina, built in1869 with cement brought over from France, bricks from London and construction engineers from Spain to make the storage tanks earthquake proof, it was a beautiful old musty smelling adventure. Plus there were no tourists and they had a secret recipe dessert wine. It was lovely.

We visited Tempus Alba, La Rural and Familia Di Tomasso (the old one), just in case one of you are sipping on any of these fine wines while you read this.

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