Wine, Wine, Wine! Santiago & Mendoza

Written by Bessie about Argentina. Feelin' normal

Central Chile & Argentina are huge wine producing areas, with micro-climates similar to those in Napa Valley and parts of France and Italy. Traveling by bus through these areas, short green trees spread over the rolling hills, and delicious grapes hang, warmed by the sun. It's a beautiful sight really, and the yummyness of wine aside, the areas are worth a visit.

We spent the better part of 3 days exploring some vineyards, swooshing wine around in glasses and learning a thing or two about wine making, sadly, none of which involved squishing grapes with my toes. Maybe I'll start that tour.

Day 1: Concha y Toro vineyard near Santiago, Chile
Concha y Toro is a huge wine producer, their wines available in some 135 countries. Like many of the wineries we visited, it's old, opened in 1883, and rich in history. The founder lived in a huge old English-style mansion, and is still known as a great international business man.

Being the smarty pants Don Malchor was, when he started having bottles of wine disappearing from his wine cellar, he knew just the remedy. Blame the devil. He told the supersticious locals that the devil lived in the deep, dark cellar where the wine was kept, and pulled Halloween style pranks shaking bottles and making loud screamy noises. It worked, and the wine became known as Casillero del Diablo, and is a famous wine world-wide today.

Day 2: Biking the Wine Road near Mendoza
Combining biking with drinking wine isn't the most natural of fusions, but we didnt actually drink while on the bikes, and it's a lot of fun.

Picture the sun shining while you're riding through green vineyards. We started in small town of Maipú (Kyle likes to say my pooh, not your pooh).

Carinae boutique winery bottles only 60,000 bottles/year.

The 150 year old winery Familia Di Tomasso is Italian & run by family members. It's all about old bricks and barrels here.

The modern Tempus Alba winery - sold as Preludio in the US.

Oh, and just to be a little more indulgant, we stopped at a chocolate factory, too, Historias y Sabores.

Day 3: Continuing the Biking Obsession
We had so much fun the first time around biking, we decided to it again, this time in Luján, within the Mendoza city limits.

Cavas Weinert - uses the largest oak barrels ever and can hold up to 470 liters.

(Kyle using the classy wine-tasting skills he aquired.)

Familia Vargas winery was my kind of place for photos.

And to finish off our three days of winery exploration, we had the largest meal I've ever seen. 44 plates of food to bring out the different flavors in the wine and mess around with your taste buds. Oh yeah, and we were supposed to have 4 more courses after that, but we passed, and just stuck with the absurd buffet.

Cavas de Canas could probably scale back the lunch size a little.

« Reflections on a Year of Travel

Beating the Boredom: Riding Bikes in Santiago, Chile »

January 30, 2009 Den & Sue: As dedicated oenophiles we are impressed with your great tour. Definitely something to keep in mind.

February 01, 2009 Bessie: you've even got the lingo down "dedicated oenophiles" - wowee!

I've never done wine tasting anywhere else, but I'm thinking things are pretty relaxed down here compared to say Napa tours. Thus, loads of young people biking around and Kyle sporting his toast shirt. I will give it affordable, fun, and de-lic-ous!

January 30, 2009 Susan: I may need to hide this report from Dan. He may take the next flight. I recognize several of the brands as ones we have in our home and even here in Mexico. Keep them coming. The pictures are what I love the best. I would rather look at wine and the makings than drink it.

February 01, 2009 Bessie: Kyle and I have laughed at your comment a few times over the past few days, Susan! Dan would definitely be a kid in a candy shop down here!

Thanks for the encouragement! :)

January 30, 2009 Linda: As you know, not much of a wine person....especially after inhaling the musty mold in a bodega in Spain. However, the buffet........looked good to me! Tell me....is that what you ordered???

February 01, 2009 Bessie: well, we didn't order it plate by 44 plates exactly... The company we rented bikes through suggested this spot for lunch, and made a reservation for us. We knew by a small photo (& the price tag) that we'd be in for a treat, but this FAR exceeded our expectations!

January 30, 2009 Jim Sellers: Greetings from your fellow wine enthusiasts in Mendoza. It is really cool to have met you on the bus and shared some samples of wine in the beautiful area and wineries. Thank you especially for recognizing me and making contact. What a great surprise for me and my son. We loved visiting with you and wish you well and continued enthusiasm for your future travels. We are now in Casa Aventura in Valpariso thinking of you. Tomorrow a tour, today was lots of walking up steep hills for grand views. We hope to see you again perhaps even in Buenos Aires on the last leg of our journey in March.
Jim and James Sellers

February 01, 2009 Bessie: it was SO great running into you and James as well! What a small world that we met in Guatemala a year ago, and cross paths again in Mendoza. If that's not serendipitous, I don't know what is!

February 02, 2009 DADDIO: Amazing! We finally have Kyle out of the beer bars and on to a civilized, corked beverage environment! I almost gave up hope. Dandy little buffet there, chow hounds. I understand that wine enhances the appetite, so you must have really done some hearty eating...