After the tasting the four of us went for dinner where I thought I had the best steak in my life, however, now three days in and with two more steaks under my belt I can confirm that Argentina only sells the best steak I've ever had in my life.....
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| Some of the oldest vines in Mendoza |
On Monday morning we were picked up just before 9am for our Lujan De Cuyo Wine Experience - what an amazing day. Lujan De Cuyo is one of the two principal wine producing areas of Mendoza, the other being Maipu, it sits in the foothills of the Andes and in the shadow of Aconcagua which at just shy of 7000 metres and with its ever snow capped peak is quite an impressive backdrop.
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| Aconcagua is just by Ben's right ear if you look very closely |
We visited four wineries each of them with a different and interesting history and approach to wine making and after each tour we tasted 4/5 of their wines. Most of the wineries that we visited were classed as 'Boutique' producing wine on a relatively small scale and even the bigger ones produce wines mainly for Argentinian consumption, but all of them do export small amounts to the UK - here are a couple of recommendations just in case you come across them....
Altavista Torrontes Premium which was a fantastic floral and fruity yet dry white wine which would make a really nice alternative to Sauvignon Blanc in the summer.
Caelum Dolce, a red dessert wine something that I hadn't tasted before but would definitely recommend.
Our final tasting of the day at Bodega Ruca Malen was a five course lunch with wine pairing, it was fantastic to eat a meal that had been so well thought through from beginning to end matched with some superb wines and it was a perfect end to the day....
Having had a couple of 'top end' wine tastings we decided to take a different approach on Tuesday. Just before 9:30am we got on our bikes which had been delivered the night before and cycled to the wineries, it was so different that it's hard to compare the different days but we definitely laughed more on Tuesday. We visited Carmelo Patti an incredibly charismatic wine maker running a far smaller operation with bottling, corking, labelling, wrapping and packing all still done by hand, I've said it before many times but there is something wonderful about listening to someone talk about something that they are truly passionate about.
Again we finished the day with a lunch and wine pairing this time at Bodega La Garde which was excellent and was an ideal way for our couple of days with Phoebe and Ben to end.
On Wednesday Abby and I head back to Mendoza for a couple of days and Phoebe and Ben are flying to Buenos Aires.
More wine tasting updates to follow from Tunuyan and Tupungato, our next two stops.
Raine x
