Mind the snakes......

On Sunday morning Raul from El Puesto arrived at 10:30 to take us from Tunuyan to Tupungato where we were spending Christmas..... Raul is an incredibly charismatic, charming (and good looking) Argentinian who arrived looking like a true gaucho in cream trousers tucked in to his short leather boots, a crisp white shirt, neckerchief and hat, and despite our Spanish and his English being limited, our shared  understanding of 'Spanglish' was sufficient to have a good conversation on the way to the Estancia.

Welcome to El Puesto

None of the other guests were at the estancia when we arrived but over a cup of coffee and a cake Raul told us that the family that were staying we're out on a ride and the final guest was on his way from the airport - it was really exciting waiting for the other guests to arrive - we were keen to find out who we would be spending Christmas with.

A short while later we found out..... Fi and Matt with their four delightful children: Eliza, Archie, Camilla (Lilla) and Matilda (Maude) who were en route from Italy where they'd lived for seven years to their new home in Australia. They were a really lovely family, so much fun and having the children there really helped to make it feel Christmassy. The final guest, Calum, arrived from Buenos Aires a short while later with Daniele, Raul's equally charming and charismatic (yes, yes and good looking) Italian son-in-law.

Whilst we knew when we booked our stay at the estancia that food was a major part of it I don't think Abby or I had anticipated it being as good as it was.....

Lunch and dinner are eaten much later in Argentina..... Lunch started at about 3pm with a basket full of fresh empanadas which were consumed within a few minutes washed down with a couple of ice cold bottles of Chardonnay. Then another basket with more empanadas arrived, not knowing the format and thinking that this WAS lunch I had another... then Lis, the housekeeper (and most amazing cook) asked us to go round to the BBQ area for lunch (!) where Christoval and Polo the two gaucho's served Chorizo and some incredible steaks that they'd BBQ'd to go with the huge selection of salads and the three bottles of Malbec that Raul and Daniele seemingly managed to pour in to our glasses without us noticing!

Where lunch is served every day

We were encouraged to go for a siesta after lunch at about 5pm; sleeping in the afternoon is easy when you've had a few glasses of wine and when the only noise that you can hear is birds tweeting and horses whinnying......

I woke up about 7pm and after a quick shower sat reading on the veranda with all of the children buzzing around then suddenly everyone had disappeared to have their showers and it was just me on the veranda and 4 year old Maude who sat on the grass telling her doll to mind the snakes when she went out!

Our garden at El Puesto

Then as quickly as everyone had disappeared they were all back, Matt, Archie, Eliza and Abs all reading, Lilla and Maude playing Noughts & Crosses and Christoval and Polo the two gauchos having a kick about and playing 'keepy uppy', all in front of the incredible backdrop of the snow covered Andes - it's crazy - this time last year I had no intention of being away for Christmas but here I am. Last night wrapping Abby's Christmas presents and listening to Christmas with the Rat Pack definitely made me feel more Christmassy but sending a few emails and updating my blog made feel a little bit melancholy. I feel so happy and so lucky to be on this trip but a little bit sad to be missing out on the annual rituals of chrismas and spending time with my family and friends, something that I hadn't realised that I cherished quite as much as I do.

As Raul and Daniele serve champagne and bruschetta canapés, 'Sunrise' by Norah Jones is playing in the background and Lilla is explaining to her Mummy that "when it rains it means the clouds are crying", I'm struck by how perfect this moment is.

Our late (by English standards) dinner of Pollo al disco, which is chicken in a delicious sauce cooked in a special pot on the BBQ served with rice and the obligatory red wine, a merlot this time, followed by Malbec pears - Argentina is not a place to be visited and enjoyed by vegetarians or teetotallers - we head to bed safe in the knowledge that whilst Christmas will be different this year, Raul and Danielle are going to make it one to remember.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Raine x

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very merry and magical Christmas!

Between the vines.....

With lots of Christmas love.

Raine xxx

Time to put a cork in it.....

Our visit to the wine lands of Argentina is coming to an end.

We visited three wineries yesterday, Salentein a huge Dutch owned operation where the wines were average but the architecture of the winery was stunning - producing 1.8M litres of wine a year they are considered to be a medium sized operation.

Salentein - a grand piano wouldn't fit into La Azul.....

Bodega La Azul our second stop of the day may well be my favourite of the whole trip; a tiny family owned fruit producer and wine maker with a lovely little restaurant that sits in the shadows of the Andes. We stopped here for lunch which was superb, a trio of small starters: pumpkin soup, a cheese, black olive and tomato quesadilla and a steak empanada followed by another of the best steaks I've ever had, a rib eye cooked Vuelta y Vuelta (very rare). Each course was complimented by one of the four wines that they produce and when we finished we had the opportunity to taste a fifth, their Malbec Gran Reserva, still in the barrel with two years left (one more in the barrell and one in the bottle) before it will be ready to drink - it tasted good at this stage, I can only imagine how good it will taste in 2015.

Bodega La Azul

Just for you Marc - an arty food photo.

Our third visit was to another big winery called Andeluna set in beautiful grounds and producing some very nice wines. I prefer the smaller boutique wineries where the attention to detail is still paid to their wine production and customer service.

View across the vines

On the way back from the wineries we visited Manzano Historico, a breathtakingly beautiful little place where the liberator and national hero Jose de San Martin supposedly devised his plan to liberate the country under the shade of an apple tree, hence the name Manzano Historico - Historic Apple Tree.

Manzano Historico

Back at our hotel we opted for a power nap and it pains me to say it knowing what the weather is like back at home but it was just too hot to sleep and after an hour or so we decided that our time would be better spent wrapping Christmas presents and drinking one of the bottles of Sauvignon Blanc that we'd bought.

Then for the second night in a row we watched a couple of episodes of Downton Abbey which was intended to get us in to the Christmas spirit but it turns out that tragedy befell the Crawley family and so for an hour and a half Abby and I were crying our eyes out.....

This morning we are travelling to La Puesta which is the name of the estancia that we're staying at for the next four days. There's no wifi there but there's horses and of course those hills!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are, whatever you are doing with whoever you're doing it with.

With lots of love,

Raine x

Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread....

Three days of wine tasting in Lujan de Cuyo were followed by two far quieter days in Mendoza, or 'Dozy' as Abs now calls it.

On Wednesday we had dinner at a lovely restaurant, Florentina Bistro. It's nice going to restaurants where they have thought as much about the interior design as they have the food and they've definitely thought about both in this restaurant. We ate in a beautiful covered outside seating area with wooden tables and chairs all painted white with floral cushions and with the biggest wall painted white and filled with terracotta pots with geraniums all bright red and in full bloom. [note to self: start taking your camera out at night!]

Pork with honeyed carrots for me and Pasta and prawns for Abby washed down with a glass of the Alta Vista Torrontes that we had discovered on one of our wine tours.

On Thursday we headed to one of the shopping malls in Mendoza to pick up a couple of last minute Christmas goodies and some wrapping paper - we were unsuccessful on both counts, Santiago wins hands down on the shopping front. I did manage to replace my sunnies though which was a result.

What do you think?

For those of you familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien you may recognise the quote that I've used for the title of this blog entry, we went to see The Hobitt last night and I loved it when Gandalf said this to Bilbo Baggins. 

The film is excellent - so much so that when the credits rolled I could not believe that three hours had passed - I highly recommend going to see it.

Tomorrow morning guess what, we're going on another wine tour.... 

Update to follow.

Raine x

The road to Tunuyan

We've just got off the bus from Mendoza to Tunuyan and arrived at the hotel that we're staying at for the next two nights, Posada del Jamon (Ham Inn).

The trip only takes one hour and the views are incredible as the road runs in parallel with the Andes. 

Out of the window on the left hand side of the bus the land is completely flat and all that you can see is sand and scrub like areas with low green/grey bushes and lots of power lines but what a difference when you looked out of the window on the right hand side of the bus!

In the foreground the same sand and then scrub land but beyond, the Andes - completely covered in snow and looking spectacular. It's hard to believe as it's 22C (70F) as I write but yesterday there was so much snow that the road over the Andes that we had travelled from Chile to Argentina on on Sunday and the border crossing were closed.

The sky is a pale duck egg blue, to the left wispy cirrus clouds and to the right, over the Andes there are occasional puffs of fluffy white cloud sitting above the peaks. 

On the journey I saw a bird of prey (sorry David & Anne, I couldn't identify it) swoop in mid air and take a much smaller bird out of the sky - amazing.

Every mountain top that we can see from our hotel is covered in snow, each one looking like the Paramount Pictures logo.

Another room with view.....

So I guess we could be closer to having a white Christmas than I thought......

Raine x

Four Friends, Three Days, Thirty Wines....

We arrived in Mendoza at 3:30pm on Sunday and walked from the bus terminal to Hostel Lao where we met up with Phoebe and Ben before walking to The Wine Lounge a few streets away for our 5:30pm wine tasting. It was a really fun event where were introduced to five different wines from the Mendoza region.

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.....

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.

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

Time, Tide and Buttered Eggs wait for no man.....

God I love this time of year although I have to say it's a very different build up here in Latin America. 

In Quito (October) and in Cusco (November) quite a few restaurants and shops already had Christmas decorations up (too early...?) but in Chile (December) pretty much nothing (too late...!) apart from the shopping centre which was much like ours at home with oversized decorations everywhere and with every purchase we made being popped into a paper or plastic bag with Feliz Navidad emblazoned across it.

Here in Mendoza in Argentina there's nothing... We're less than a week away and you would never know it. 

Our Christmas preparation started in earnest in Sunday when we got the bus from Santiago to Mendoza - it began with us taking in turns to play our favourite Christmas songs from the selection on: Now That's What I Call Christmas and Christmas With The Rat Pack - my choices in no particular order were; Fairytale of New York, Driving Home for Christmas, Last Christmas, Santa Baby, Merry Christmas Everybody, Baby It's Cold Outside and It's Christmas Time All Over The World.

After we'd listened to almost every Christmas song we then listened to The Box of Delights; my Dad used to play this to me, my brother and sister just before Christmas every year ever since I can remember and it wouldn't feel like Christmas to me if I didn't listen to it - thanks Dad x

Christmas prep continued when we met up with Phoebe and Ben when, for each of our wine tastings, we all donned Santa hats which Abby and I had bought when we were in Vina del Mar.  

Baby It's Cold Outside?!?!?!

Only four days to go......

Raine x