The Blaus - South America and Europe

28 del Febrero - Mendoza

We met up with Pete and Rachel again in Mendoza to explore the Argentine wine country and to check out the wine festival (Vendimia) that kicks off harvest here.

Our first day in Mendoza wasn`t very productive, as we were tired from an overnight bus ride and not many of the bodegas (wineries) were open for tours because it was a Sunday. So, we took a cab to a nearby winery called Escorihuela to have lunch at the restaurant there called Francis Mallman. This is a wonderful restaurant, on par with restaurants in San Francisco or in the wine country in Northern California. We had a delicious lunch with champagne, wine, and some of the best food we have feasted on since we arrived in Argentina. That night we went to Parque San Martin to catch a glimpse of the first event of many to follow in this wine festival. The festival begins with a blessing of the grapes and the presentation of the queens. Each suburban area surrounding Mendoza elects a queen to represent that territory. At the end of this festival one queen is chosen. We are not sure if this is similar to a beauty pageant, or if there is more to it.

We were hoping that the wine festival meant that all the wineries come together in the center of town to host a tasting event, but this festival is much more about the traditions and folklore of wine and grapes than it is a venue for wineries to sell their products to consumers. In fact, as we are learning, the wineries do very little business with tours and tastings. In some cases, the wines are not even available for purchase at the bodegas. This is a very different approach from the way wineries operate in Napa Valley. The wineries here seem to be focused on education rather than sales. The tastings are free of charge, and the bodegas require you to take an hour long tour of the facilities to learn about the production of the wines, which is wonderful when the tour is in English. At one bodega that we visited (Norton), we learned that on Thursdays they allow the public to bring in 5 liter bottles to fill up with the common red table wine they produce. We have learned a ton about the production process, the equipment, bottling, labeling, etc. It is also refreshing to see behind the scenes at these wineries where the work is in progress, and it is a busy time with harvest beginning this month. We`ve been able to see historical methods of production and old equipment in museums built by the bodegas. All of the bodegas are located outside of the city center, so you must take buses to travel to them, and there is only enough time to visit two bodegas per day because they are really spread out. There is very little organized tourism around the wine country here, which is nice because it is an undiscovered gem.

posted by The Blaus @ 7:49 PM