Day 8 - Mendoza, Argentina (Monday 26 March 2012)
We booked ourselves into a wine tour for
65 pesos (NZ $ 22). The tour company was the same as we used for the city tour (Mayas tours, cant find a webpage to blog). We started this tour
by going to a new industrial vineyard that started in 2007 called Vistanedes. The vineyard is huge and very modern. We were taken around the winery and shown the processes taken to create their wines. The tour was good but the best part was the tastings, and they were very generous 'tastings' aswell, lucky I wasnt driving (I wouldnt be comfortable driving anyway, Im still getting used to the fact it is all left hand driving cars and you drive on the right side of the road)! We got to try two
of their wines. The Malbec 2010 and the
Torrontes 2011 Reserve. The torrontes is
a white wine. This
wine was ok, but it tasted very salty. The malbec was a lot nicer than the
torrontes, but still tasted salty.
After this winery, we drove to a small family run vineyard that is 100 years
old called Cavas De Don Arturo. This
winery was fantastic. The tour started off
with showing us the vines. All the
grapes are picked by hand at this winery.
It is a very traditional winery, and no machinery or chemicals are used
in the wine making process here. This tour was very interesting, and there was a big difference to the previous winery, mainly the fact it was a smaller winery with high attention to detail compared to an industrial type winery. After the tour we got to taste four of their wines.
The hot Argentian tour guide was very good in explaining what we should look for and smell
when wine tasting (I must have been listening intensely). We started off with
the Malbec 2004, should look for a
ruby red colour of the wine by slightly tipping the glass and placing it against a white surface. We then swirl the
wine to introduce oxygen. If the wine
forms large tears while dripping down the glass, then the wine is full of body and of
good quality. Then you can taste the
wine! The other wines we tasted were Cabernet
Sauvignon 2004, Syrah 2004, Cabernet Sauvignon Roble 2006 Reserve. The Cabernet Sauvignon Roble 2006 was my favourite! All in all the wines here at this winery were far superior to the previous winery. Each bottle cost AR$35 (about NZ$11). I would have bought some but Im already struggling for room in my backpack!
After this we went to a Olive Oil factory to see how that is made. We also got to taste the different sorts of
oils and creams that this place made. It
was nice. Overall a good time at this place, but compared to the rest of the tour it was not as good.
The final place we went to was a chocolate, jam, liquors and dips making
place called A la Antigua. The lady here was a character. She was pretty funny. She claimed that she didn’t speak English,
but we understood what she was saying.
Her stuff was very nice. I
tried some dips and then we got to the liquor tasting. I tried a whiskey. It was fantastic! A big reason why I tried it was because an old French couple were also on the tour and the guy kept talking about how he wanted to go to a whiskey factory. I got talking with this fella since I was wearing my All Black jersey. He started a conversation with me saying (in a French accent) All Blacks, win, one point! World Cup. I responded with a big smile on my face, "wee wee"!!! Very proud moment that one. A couple in our
group asked to try the absinthe. The
lady gave a drink to this young female and then said to her “bye bye”, and fair enough too since it had an alcohol content of 75%.
This was a fantastic tour with good people. I really
enjoyed seeing the contrast of a large industrial winery to a small traditional
family run winery.
After the tour we return to our hostel to drop our bags off and then started walking to the supermarket. As we were walking out the gate, the owner came running up to us. He was a nice fella and greeted us like everyone in Argentina greets people, shake my hand and give Ann a kiss on each cheek. He was very enthusiastic and said that since the hostel was quiet tonight, we could be upgraded to the double room with a private bathroom for no extra charge. He said he would do this because we were New Zealanders (saw the AB's top). He said he loved New Zealanders and Australians. When we got back to the hostel we moved our gear to our new room which was about 3 times the size of our original room.
It was quite nice too. The All Blacks top does it again!!!
Vistanedes winery - http://www.vistandes.com/home.htm
Cavas don Arturo winery - http://www.mendoza.com.ar/bodega_cavas_don_arturo_1.html
Pasrai Olive Oil factory - http://www.pasrai.com.ar/turismo.html
A la Antigua - http://www.pasrai.com.ar/turismo.html
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