Lauren –
Arriving in Mendoza felt like stepping into a holiday. The sun was shining, there was a dry heat in the air and an almost Mediterranean feel about the place. I felt immediately relaxed and I couldn’t wait to drop off our bags at our hostel and sit in the sun on one of the beautiful tree lined streets with a glass of wine in hand. Our flight from Santiago had only been around 30 minutes, but it was one of the most picturesque either of us had ever been on. Endless views over the Andes mountains meant that for the first time ever I was a little sad the flight would be ending!
You could tell immediately that in this town wine meant business, every single corner off the beautiful city was packed with quality wines from the surrounding vineyards.
We looked up the best rated wine shop in town and headed there straight away. The plan was to buy a bottle, get some cheese and then sit in the park watching the world go by for the afternoon.
David was pretty keen to try the famous Argentinian steak with his glass of Malbec, so we found a lovely looking restaurant and paid around $15 for the biggest piece of steak I’ve ever seen in my life! David’s eyes lit up and he could not believe how good the quality was. We were already sad to only be spending two nights in Mendoza.
The next morning we eagerly jumped onto a local bus heading out to the nearby town of Maipu – a well known wine growing region. The bus dropped us off directly infront of a bike shop – perfect! It all seemed so easy. We hired our bikes for the day, collected the all important map with the wineries numbered and set off. All before 11am! More time for wine!
As soon as we turned off the ‘main road’ of town we were faced with a beautiful tree lined path. This would be our road for the day, as we cycled to six different wineries. Each winery had a spot for the bikes – easy access to the winery! This place is amazing!
We peddled as fast as we could to the first one on the list – MEVI. The views were stunning. We ordered the three wine tasting (for a cool $3 per person!!) and sat back. Our only regret was not ordering the matching cheese platter – I know how silly. But it was still 11am and we had 4 wineries ahead of us. But I still regret this.
I was feeling slightly tipsy after leaving Mevi and it was so early in the day! So many more wines to try! We decided to make our next winery one with food as to ensure we’d not take a siesta too early.
Our next stop was Bodega Tempus Alba, a rather fancy looking building with large imposing doors. It felt very posh. We hurried upstairs to the beautiful patio and immediately ordered (the again $3 per person) wine tasting, although this time with food to match!
Each of the wines here were fantastic. Sense a trend? We just love wine! The food was so so, but much needed. After around an hour it was time to go, a wine schedule needed to be met! We jumped back onto our bikes and cycled to the nearby organic winery of Bodega Viña el Cerno.
This winery was the most generous in terms of tasting but also our least favourite. I mean it was nice sure, but now we were wine aficionados and this just wasn’t up to scratch…we still polished off our rather full glasses though!
We had a hard deadline of 3pm for our next winery – the famous Trapiche. We’d heard lots about this one and it definitely lived up to our expectations. It was about a 15 min bike ride away which was good because we needed to stretch our legs. We arrived at 10 to 3 ready for our winery tour to begin. It was an absolutely beautiful setting.
The tour was short and sharp – perfect because we were really only there for the tastings! We were taken through the wine fermentation process, the ageing process and the bottling process. The machinery was really impressive, and it was great hearing about the different treatment grape varieties get to turn them into the wine we know and love.
Finally it was time for the tastings, and what a setting. Pristine glasses lined up against a backdrop of the Andes mountains. We tried four wines, each of growing intensity. My favourite was the Torrentes a white variety famous in the high altitude regions of Northern Argentina, and David’s a Malbec – of course!
We decided to then head back to the bike shop as it was nearing late afternoon – time for happy hour with our fellow bike riders! We stayed in Maipu until well past 7pm drinking Vino a la Casa and chatting with new friends. What a day! We caught a taxi back to Mendoza that night and headed out for a late dinner – well dinner time starts at 9pm in Argentina so it wasn’t really late.
Far Away From Home 
absolutely love this blog post! Mendoza sounds amazing!!!
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