I stop to take a picture of the vineyard
Ali couldn´t quite put her finger on it. It smelt a lot like something she was familiar with but didn´t know what. I swirled the wine in my glass and took a sniff for myself. I identified the mysterious fragrance at once. Nail varnish remover! Yes, Ali concurred. The wine smelt exactly like acetone. We looked at each other and reluctantly took a sip from the glass. Fortunately it tasted better than the fragrance but not by much. Our first winery visit was one of the biggest in Maipu and our tour was very informative and interesting. They also had a museum which displayed old tools that were used during the early days of wine making. It was fascinating to see how much things have changed. My particular favorite was the huge elevated stretched cow skin that was used to squash grapes...with bare feet!
Ali considers making a purchase
We rented bikes from a place in the city so that we could visit the wineries in Maipu at our own lesiure. Our destination was an unpleasant 60 minutes cycle alongside the highway, but once we were amongst the vineyards in Maipu, it was perfectly pleasant. The second winery we visited didn´t have an English tour available but we still had a look around. Because the building wasn´t in use anymore (they moved premises) it was essentially just a large museum. The place still reeked of wine though. The smell was almost intoxicating. As we had hoped, we were offered to try a few of the wines. Not quite tipsy enough, we made our way to winery number three. Lopez winery was the most impressive out of the three because they actually allowed us to visit the bottling area. I was amazed at how the machines did absolutely everything. Our guide actually had to come back to escort me out when she realised that I hadn´t left with the others in the group. We learnt about how wine is made and how every part of the grape is utilised. Nothing wasted. Can you believe, they even sell compressed grape skins to cosmetic companies and the likes. That is, after they have squeezed them for a second time to produce another (poorer quality) wine. The last place we visited was the tasting lab. Behind the window we could see a wine taster surrounded by hundreds of test tubes and beakers. He was very cheery and even allowed us to take a picture of him swilling some wine. I´m not surprised he was cheery. God knows how much wine he had "tasted". We finally got to do some tasting ourselves down in the cellar at the end of the tour. We tried four wines, two of which I liked the best out of all the wineries we visted. I considered enquiring about job vacancies. I was particularly interested in lab work! We ended the trip to Maipu with a visit to a Chocolate factory. Well, it was called a chocolate factory but it was more of a house that made lots of different things including liquor. We tasted dulce de leche liqour and some chocolate but ended up buying homemade olive tepanade. Ali and I love olives and thought it would be a nice treat with dinner that night. This tepanade was made with green olives and paprika along with the usual ingredients (unknown). It tasted good. Excellent in fact!
Meat is cheap. Very cheap!
Mendoza is my favorite city in Argentina besides Buenos Aires. It´s not as old but still has character. The nice plazas and tree-lined streets create a cosy, if not intimate, atmosphere which encourages you to linger. The city is cleaner and well populated making it a livlier more pleasant city to walk around. We even got to whitness a student protest which involved blocking one of the main roads holding banners and chanting. Although I didn´t entirely agree with their methods I enjoyed seeing such emotion, action and life for a change. It sort of woke me out of a daze which I had been in for quite some time. I had finally found atmosphere. Something that rarely exists anywhere else in Argentina (except Buenos Aires of course) or Paraguay. Students...maybe that´s the key. Other cities in comparison aren´t lively because there is not much youth living there. Well, anyway, I´m rambling. We met an American resident on the street who suggested we visit the local indoor market and she showed us exactly where it was on our map. The market had everything, and we wanted it all. Meats, cheeses, empanadas, olives, cherries, preserves, wine, salami...we splurged and bought some bife de lomo. Two inch thick lean steaks cost us about two pounds. Add red wine, a squeeze of lemon juice, some salad and whuala! A delicious meal with a bottle of wine for under 3 pounds each! There wer certainly no complaints there.
I would have liked to stay in Mendoza longer but unfortunately we are pressed for time. Our bus leaves for Santiago in the morning. I wonder how our second visit will differ from the first...
