2 Brits, 2 Dutch and an Irish go to a vineyard
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2009
1
32
78
Trip End
Jun 27, 2010
Mendoza, Argentina
Saturday, February 6, 2010
So back to us. The bus journey from Valpo to Mendoza was not appauling but pretty close. We had spectacular views of the valleys and peaks of the Andes as we crossed through them reaching immigration 2800m up. However, at immigration we had to wait for 3 hours to get our stamps, an extremely inefficient border with no real reason for it to be. Agentina then attempted to scam us... the bus driver demanded that we tipped the customs officials, even though we hadnīt used the service. We had to pay a group of men to take our bag off the bus and then when we were already in the process of egtting in a taxi a girl told the drievr we wanted it, well of course, yet she needed money for this service too. So both of us were a little grumpy that evening. We did find Tourist Info and got maps and bike rental details for the next day!
Our one whole day in Menodoa was spent in the Maipu Vineyard region. Caught the bus there and met two dutch girls on the way who were also planning on doing the bikes an wines cycle. To our benefit they managed to get us a discount and so our day bike hire cost only 3.40 amazingly cheap. We started off making our way to the nearest and also free vineyard. Unfortunately we had missed the tour but we were more than happy to have free wine anyway, a Cab Sav and Malbec. Had a wander round the museum ourselves, somehow managed to let ourselves into the production rooms and the actual vineyard itself. We also picked up an irish guy to our tour party who introduced himself by asking to take a photo of my T-Shirt, apparently the best he has seen on his trip. For those of you who havenīt seen it well its a salt shaker and a pepper sakes with 2 speech bubbles "push it" and "push it real good" Padraig loved it.
One vineyard complete we next cycled to a liquor and chocolate producer. We had free shots, chocolate and also some chutney/jam type affairs. They were all very tasty (except I wasnīt too keen on a Choco Banana liquor that tasted a bit like Baileys!) and Dave and I bought some extra chocolate each.
The 3rd stop was thew Trapiche vineyard, one of the oldest and the largest in Maipu. Our guide Miguel was great, very informative and funny too. Especially when one of the Dutch girls asked if the wooden casks in the winery had wine in them. At the tasting we got to sample bottles costing between 180 and 280 pesos so in the UK market several hundereds of pounds and all for only 4pounds. For the 1st time the wines did actual smell and taste how they were described as doing! Fantastic day all round.
In the evening we went for dinner with the Dutch girls, their rather dull and socially awkward british room mates and an argentine guy. After walking miles for a restaurant, we have no idea why, we found somewhere the group was happy with an had our steak. It did take an hour to come but was pretty good. Post dinner drinks were had at a pub and then a bar where we met up with Irish.
The next day was spent relaxing in the sun really. So nothing really to report apart from that we met up with the Dutch girls again for dinner and that they will be in flying from Quito on the same day as us. So we will defo meet up with them again!
Vineyards were well worth the trip back to Argentina.
Rhys and Dave
