Mendozaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! Argentina

If you know us at all, you know that we love wine.  And other than local Niagara wine, we probably drink Argentinian wine more than any other kind. So it’s no surprise that we found ourselves flying from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, the heart of Argentinian wine country. Also, we thought we’d make time for a little cartoon nostalgia…

We normally don’t plan very far ahead when visiting a new place. This usually works out for the best, as interesting and unexpected plans come together at the last minute.  In the case of Mendoza, we probably should have done some research first.  In our heads we were just going with the idea “oh we’ll go to Mendoza, swing by some wineries and check them out. It’ll be great!”. But as it turns out, the reality is a little more complicated.  You see, Mendoza is both a city and a province.  And the majority of wineries are south of Mendoza city in rural areas known as Lujan de Cuyo and Valle de Uco, 35km and 90km south of the city, respectively. Thankfully, the urban sprawl of Mendoza has meant that there are some wineries at the end of a small tram line, in a suburb called Maipu.  So let’s start our tale there.

Maipu’s wineries used to be in rural areas, surrounded by vines but nowadays they are in the middle of a suburb of Mendoza city. Their vineyards are located elsewhere in Mendoza province, but the wine is still made on the original property.

Our first stop was Bodega Lopez, one of the largest wineries in the area.  We had never heard of them before, which is no surprise given that they sell 95% of their product within Argentina.  Their tour and tasting was free, which was a fantastic surprise, as these are not normally free in Mendoza.  We were a little concerned it would be overly touristy, since its the closest winery to the city and free to visit. But we loved their wine. their staff were very friendly and their facilities were impressive.

Bodega Lopez has been run by the same family for four generations, since 1898.

The tasting room at Bodega Lopez.  Their wine was some of the best we had during our time in Mendoza.

Do you ever wonder how you can go to the liquor store and see so many bottles on the shelf from Argentina? Its thanks to places like this.  Their facility is absolutely enormous, and it produces up to 20 million liters of wine a year – that’s 26.7 million bottles.  It also looks like somewhere that John Conner would battle the Terminator.

And what about all that oaked red wine we love so much? This barrel holds 35,000L or nearly 47 thousand bottles.  This is just one of many, many casks in their huge building.

Down the road from Bodega Lopez is Mendoza’s oldest winery, Bodega Giol.  This winery opened its doors in 1896, and has a tumultuous history that involves a number of different owners including the Argentinian government.  We didn’t think the wine offered at the tasting was as good as their neighbour’s, but their tour was fantastic.  Their on-site facility hasn’t actually made wine for years, and has instead been preserved as a sort of museum of wine making.

 

Some of these casks are around 100 years old and have been left in their original state.  The winery used to be the largest producer of wine by volume in the world.

 

They have a special 75,000 L cask (100,000 bottles of wine).

Before visiting Mendoza, we were under the impression that the Argentinian wine industry went back many years, with historical vineyards producing wines for several generations.  But the reality is quite different.  Though the industry started over 100 years ago in Mendoza, up until the 1980s most wine produced was simply “red” or “white”.  There was no differentiation between grapes or production methods, and most wine wasn’t aged at all – it was sold and drank in the same year the grapes were picked from the vine.  The goal was simply to produce cheap, passable table wines intended for daily drinking.  But in the 1960s and 1970s people began drinking pop and beer and wine consumption dropped right off.  Wine went unsold and was dumped out, sometimes onto the streets to flow into the sewers.  Inevitably, wineries began to close down.

Then in the late 1980s and 1990s the industry had a resurgence as European wine makers realized they could buy land in Argentina and set up wineries for a fraction of the cost of being in France, Spain, or Italy.  Since that time there has been enormous injections of money into the local economy and mega-wineries have popped up on every corner.  But by this time the older wine area of Maipu had been turned into a suburb of Mendoza, so the new wineries were built further south in Mendoza province in the towns of Lujan de Cuyo and Valle de Uco.

We had seen some pictures of Valle de Uco wineries online, and even though it was a long way away we decided it was worth the money to rent a car and drive down. The winery staff even admit it is frustrating there is no transportation from any of the local towns, and they hope to work on that. Also to our surprise, we were told that the wineries in these areas require prior reservations to visit and do a tour and tasting, at least the bigger, easier-to-find ones.  This is quite different from Niagara, where the tours and tastings are more casual and you can almost always show up on the day-of with no prior notice. However, if renting a car is feasible for you,  it is absolutely worth it.  When you see the photos, you’ll understand why.

We immediately e-mailed around 10 wineries and got only three responses – one had no availability, and two had room for visits but only at the same time as each other.  So we were a little concerned about going so far for just one winery, but we decided to give it a go anyways.  As soon as we got on the road we realized it was worth the cost of renting the car for the scenery alone, let alone the wine.

 

Views of the Andes on the drive south to Valle de Uco.

Our reservation was for a tour and tasting at Bodega Salentein.  We had never heard of this winery before, but it was recommended by a blog we found online, so it seemed like a good option. And of course they were one of the only wineries to actually get back to us about a reservation. The wine tour and tasting was 300 Argentinian pesos per person, or about $20 CAD.  We thought it was a little expensive, though apparently its the going rate for a tour and tasting here in Mendoza.

The winery site is spectacular, sitting just below the eastern edge of the Andes.

 

The winery is quite modern and was clearly designed to be as much of a showpiece as a wine production facility.  This is the cellar where the wines are aged and the occasional concern is held.  The concerts are free, but there are only 300 tickets available to each one.

 

We got to visit their high-end tasting room, though we did our actual tastings in the slightly less impressive room next door.

 

The winery’s owners are a Dutch family, who believe there is an important connection between wine and art.  So when designing the winery they included for an gallery which they populated with a collection of Argentinian and Dutch artwork.  Entrance was free with the tour and tasting.

 

The winery’s yard was filled with art as well.

Our plan after visiting Bodega Salentein was just to drive around the area and see whether we could drop into any other wineries unannounced.   But we got a little lucky, and our tour guide was able to recommend another winery in the area that allows for drop ins.  So we hopped in our very small rental car and continued south.  After 10 km on a gravel road, we eventually arrived at a very closed looking gate. We weren’t really surprised, because we had been told earlier in the day it was a holiday and most things would be closed (it would have been nice if the car rental agent had told us this when we booked the car…).  But thankfully there was a security guard who we convinced to radio into the winery to allow us access.

The look of wine-touring in Argentina – waiting at the gate to the winery while a security guard radios into the winery to see if we are allowed in.  Its not a particularly welcoming first impression.

 

Finally we arrived at Monteviejo winery.

 

These barrels are from a special French cooper, and are marked with the dates “1660 – 2010”.  This means the oak tree was originally planted in 1660 and was cut down in 2010. There is something tragic about that.  The barrels were supposed to be for sale only to wine makers in France, but Monteviejo’s owner is French so she was able to purchase the barrels and then have them shipped in secret to Argentina.

 

The experience at Monteviejo was interesting, though not all that different from other wine tours.  In all honestly, if you have done a day of wine touring in the Twenty Valley in Niagara then you have had a more immersive and personal wine experience then you will get in Mendoza.  They could definitely use some improvements if they want to increase tourism in the area.  But the one thing that really stands out from Mendoza is the scenery.  The sky is huge, the mountains are incredible, and the horizon goes on forever.  Its a pretty amazing part of the world.

Vines as far as the eye can see.

 

After a long day touring wineries, what’s better than getting back into the city and going out for a nice dinner.  Doug’s mom Judy has celiac disease, so we needed to be careful about where we can eat.  But thankfully in Argentina the most popular food is asado, the local form of barbeque.  We’ve shown you some barbeque pictures in our Uruguay posts, but we thought it was worth it to include a photo of the Argentinian style.

Argentinian asado – every type of grilled meat you can imagine, cooking slowly over a bed of roasting coals.  It was an all you can eat buffet, and including wine our meals came to only $20 CAD per person.

 

To our pleasant surprise, we have found lots of gluten free foods in the grocery stores. We even found some specialty gluten free stores in Mendoza.  In Argentina gluten free food is designated “Sin T.A.C.C.”, which is an Argentinian acronym translating to “without wheat, oats, barley, or rye”.

 

While on the topic of food, check out this dinner of champions.  Judy brought us some Kraft Dinner, which after ten months on the road was a very welcome taste of home.  KD and a nice local Malbec, who could ask for more.

 

We spent four days in Mendoza, which was about right to see everything and get a good handle on things in the area.  Even if you’re not into wine, its a beautiful city with lots to see and do.  Though its not the cheapest place for budget travellers, we are very glad we went.

The streets in Mendoza are lined with what look like huge storm drainage ditches.  These were originally intended for irrigation purposes, since Mendoza is essentially a desert region.  Nowadays they are used mostly for storm water control during the odd winter rain storm.  You need to be very, very careful walking around town because they aren’t always this obvious and can be very easy to fall into.

 

Mendoza seems to have a bit of a thing for The Simpsons.  Maybe its because of McBain’s arch nemesis from the Youtube video at the start of the post. This is the Homer Simpson themed hot dog store, and just around the corner is a Moe’s Tavern bar.

 

Mendoza’s downtown has lots of shopping, but the opening times are confusing due to the siesta.  Everyone seems to be on siesta all the time, or at least whenever we wanted to go into a store.

We happened to be in Mendoza during the annual wine festival.  Its basically a Mendoza version of Niagara’s Grape and Wine Festival, with vendors offering tastings and food.  We missed Grape and Wine this year so it was nice to get a chance to catch it down here.

We were lucky enough to be in Mendoza when the local soccer team Godoy Cruz was playing a home game against Gimnasia, a team from near Buenos Aires.  After our amazing experience in Brazil, we couldn’t pass up the chance to see an Argentinian game as well.

 

Of course, since this is Argentina there must be a pre-game barbeque.  Have you ever tried chimichurri on a sausage? If not, you should. Its life changing.

Security at the game was intense, with multiple security checks to get into the stadium.  Interestingly, the security was much more focused on men then women.  Emily got waved right through the lines, while Doug was sent over to a line of men who were getting their ID cards and fingerprints scanned.  Emily was waiting for Doug behind the guards, and Doug yelled over to her that he didn’t bring his passport so he wasn’t sure what ID he would show.  As soon as the guard heard Doug’s accent, they waved him through immediately with no further checks.  They must have assumed he was Argentinian, but then when they found out he was a foreigner they figured he wasn’t a risk to cause problems at the game.  The Argentinians who were left in the line gave him thumbs up and cheers, and we heard one of them yell in heavily Spanish-accented English “hey, I’m Australian!”.

 

There were riot guards outside and inside the stadium.  During the game they stayed at the corners, presumably to block anyone trying to get onto the field.  Though it would be very difficult to get onto the field thanks to the 10 foot deep stone moat separating the stands from the playing area.  After the game, the riot guards all went out onto the middle of the field and made a line to shield the players as they walked off the pitch.  It was all very strange, because the crowd seemed totally happy and friendly, with no sign of any aggression.  Maybe it helped that the stadium was mostly empty due to it being Argentinian Mother’s Day.  But they must have some history of problems to warrant this level of security.

We were in the Godoy Cruz supporters section, which was divided from the rest of the stadium by a barbed wire fence.  Notice the small flag that says “Volveremos”?  The logo is in the shape of the Falkland Islands, with the colours of the Argentinian flag.  We saw this logo all over Argentina, on shirts, wall murals, and even tattooed on someone’s leg.  We are aware of the history of the Falkland Islands, but somehow didn’t realize how much of a sensitive subject it is in Argentina.  The people strongly view the islands as their territory, and they are quite clear in their desire to take it back.  “Volveremos” translates to “We will be back”.

The supporters sang for literally the entire game.  It was pretty incredible, we just wish we knew the words.  We have a few good videos from it, so when if can get them uploaded maybe we will do a special post to share them.  It was like being in an awesome party for a few hours.

Mendoza was our last stop in Argentina, and though we loved the city it was soon time to move on and head west into Chile.  We were particularly excited for this bus ride, because the road winds its way up to 3200m above sea level as it goes over the spine of the Andes and down into Chile.  It was one of those rides that we didn’t want to end, because it was so spectacular.

We bought our bus tickets well in advance to make sure we got the front seats on the top level.  Unfortunately the window was overlaid with one of those exterior advertisements where you can see through from the inside.  Well, you can mostly see through but not really clear enough for good photos.

Thankfully the side windows were free from advertising film, The eastern side of the Andes are arid and desert like.  It was strange to see mountains with so little vegetation.

As we gained in altitude there was more snow.  Only two weeks ago the mountain pass was completely closed due to snow.

Finally at the Argentina-Chile border station. Apparently the wait can sometimes be quite long, since they have to process everyone through immigration and also x-ray everyone’s baggage.  We got lucky and the line was short, so our bus was through in just under an hour. But we have read that it can regularly take two hours and sometimes up to six hours.

After going through border control, the road drops in elevation quickly though a series of switchbacks.

There are around 25 curves in all.  From the top level of a a double decker bus its quite the hairy ride. There are no guard rails, and the road drops off immediately from the road’s edge.  See those tiny vehicles down there? Those are coach buses.

It was a long, slow ride but thankfully Argentinian buses are really comfortable.

Only two weeks in Argentina was really not enough time to even scratch the surface of this enormous country.  We will definitely be back, especially because we didn’t get the chance to go down south to Patagonia.  But Argentina is expensive, and this time around it would be difficult to stay much longer on a backpacker budget.  So on to Chile we go, where the Pacific coast awaits.

• Doug and Emily / October 18, 2017 @ 11:23pm / Valparaiso, Chile at our AirBNB (General Bartolome Mitre 775, Torre Barrom II)