Bicycle Wine Tour

Sarah and I took a wine tour yesterday for our final day in Mendoza. Since many of the vineyards are near one another, a popular way to visit several over the course of a day is on a bike tour: we were picked up from our B&B in a van, driven to the first vineyard, then rode bikes to the second, third and fourth stops. The weather was gorgeous again so we were happy to spend most of the day outside; plus, the health benefit of riding 15 kilometers helps offset all the day drinking along the way, right?

Our first stop was Cecchin Winery, a smaller, family-owned, organic winery that only produces a few thousand liters of wine each year (as opposed to the bigger, more industrialized wineries which produce millions of liters annually). It was a good start to the tour - we had a very informative guide who explained the organic wine making process and we were able to taste four wines. That said, I'm glad this was only the first stop because the wines weren't that good! Guess I'm not an organic wine fan...

Fun fact: winery is "bodega" in Spanish. Not exactly the same as the bodegas we're used to in NYC!

Another cloudless day. It's a dry winter in Mendoza so the vineyards looked a little barren - but still a great view!

The house sommelier? Based on how the wines tasted, he might be!

Our next stop was the much bigger Vistandes winery. Our guide here gave us a tour of their facilities then let us taste five wines...and he had a heavy hand when it came to pouring each glass. Our bike guide was a little concerned by the end - he asked several of the other people on the trip if they thought they were still able to ride their bikes! "Are you sure? The van is very comfortable." Ha!

We liked the wine so much that we bought a case of one of their "Grand Reserve" series - so keep an eye out for a FedEx package from Argentina, Mom & Dad!

Much different feel than the first winery - lots of big, new wine-making equipment.

The owner's wine cellar.

We tasted wine #3 outside so we could savor the view.

Vistandes turned out to be the highlight of the tour: the third winery was a "boutique" that only let us taste one wine and the last stop was a beer brewery that had run out of their famous Red Lager. Their Blonde brew was good, but our bike tour guide had been getting us excited for the Roja Cerveza all day so we felt a little let down.

Posing for a picture on our bikes.

From the brewery we were taken directly to the bus station to catch our overnight bus to Buenos Aires. I was a little less excited about the trip this time. Even though we both slept pretty well, I think we'll take it easy for the rest of the day today. We both want to be fresh for our trip to Iguazu Falls tomorrow!

Mendoza = Malbec + Mountains

We arrived in Mendoza yesterday after a 14-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. While I don't think the accommodations quite lived up to Alex's luxury bus fantasy, it was much nicer than the bus / train rides we are used to in the US: the seats reclined into flat beds, we watched a movie on our private TV and we were served wine and dinner. That said, a 14-hour bus ride can only be so fun...

Selfie before sharing Alex's headphones to watch Drive.

We made it to our bed and breakfast, Casa Aristides, and were greeted warmly by our hosts, Marcelo and Pamela. We were starving after the long journey so Marcelo helped us locate a local breakfast spot, which was a big help since most places are closed on Sundays in Argentina. We were rewarded with a cheap and tasty meal at Maria Antonieta, including the best croissant Alex has ever tasted.

Fluffy cheese omelet, café con leche, croissant and our first tabasco sighting in weeks? We might be back here. 

After our meal, we walked around downtown Mendoza. The weather was perfect so even though most places weren't open, we had a nice time checking out the town. Once we made our way back to the B&B, we unpacked and rested a bit, booked a couple tours (with Marcelo's help) and then headed to find a place where we could try some Malbec, the local specialty.

For about US$12 we had an amazing bottle of wine, which we paired with a massive antipasti plate. Definitely a nice way to end a sleepy Sunday.

A meal in itself!

Similar to our ATV tour in Peru, today's excursion was full of surprises. We woke up early to join a bus tour that took us past the vineyards and into the Andes mountains. Our first surprise was that we weren't really going to be doing any walking / hiking in the national parks but would be shuttled from place to place instead (I think our lack of Spanish and Marcelo's lack of English were to blame for us not fully understanding the nature of the tour). Still, the scenery was beautiful and we were lucky to have blue skies all day (seriously, we did not see a single cloud all day!).

Sunrise over the mountains in Mendoza.

The second surprise was a stop at a "ski resort" which seemed like it hasn't seen many skiers for some time. We took a chairlift up (and down) in our regular clothes and just looked around for a bit. There was definitely nowhere near enough natural snow and no visible snow machines for proper skiing which made us wonder whether the only people coming here were confused tourists like us.

View of the "ski resort." Where is the snow?!

Our next surprise was a stop to see the highest peak in both South and North America, Aconcagua. The views were nice, though I think we were pretty spoiled after our incredible trek to Machu Picchu.

Standing in front of Aconcagua.

Lunch turned out to be another surprise as it was not served until 3pm (gotta get used to this later schedule!) but it was hearty and delicious! Worth the wait and now we won't be hungry for dinner until 9 or 10pm, a much more appropriate hour for dining for Argentina.

Next, we learned that we would be heading all the way into Chile. I thought: "Cool! We weren't planning on going there" while Alex worried "Shit, I didn't bring our passports." Luckily for both of us, we only just crossed over the border and the customs checkpoint isn't for another 4 kilometers or so.

We made it to Chile...sort of!

Our final surprise was the activity planned for our one hour in Chile: "playing in the snow." I'm not kidding when I say we literally pulled off a highway so that the majority of our South American tour mates could walk and sled around some dirty, hard snow. Guess we've been spoiled in the US with much snowier winter sports conditions.

Not our idea of fun.

Much like our stop at the "ski resort" Alex and I were a little confused - according to our guide it never snows in Argentina which is why we had to cross briefly into Chile? Definitely not a highlight of the trip but an amusing stop for sure.

While our trip through the Mountains in Mendoza didn't go exactly as planned, we still had a nice time checking out the local landscape. Tomorrow we are signed up for a winery biking tour so hopefully that turns out a bit differently!