New Year in Mendoza: Adventures in Argentinian wine

Ah Mendoza, Mendoza, where to begin?

We arrived from an underwhelming week in Bariloche over Christmas and spirits flagging somewhat - not the town´s fault, not ours, just a failure in travel chemistry mixed with a serious rain situation in what is essentially an outdoorsy region. So wheeling north into one of Argentina`s premier tourist destinations, packed with enough great wine and food to sink a ship of broadsheet food critics (before everyone discovered Pilates), we were ready for A Holiday and, more importantly, to get our Wine on.

The sun was shining - already beating down strongly at 9am when we clambered down from our billionth overnight bus. So far so good, we sighed, starved of temperatures over 25 degrees since leaving Buenos Aires almost a month before. And after navigating the rechargable bus cards and routes, we got ourselves headed north-west of the city to El Challao, a hilly suburb with a decent campsite. Over 35 minutes later and we were starting to get nervous, as Mendoza city receded into the distance and we still hadn`t reached our destination (supposedly just 6km away). `This feels pretty far,` I remarked hesitantly. Everything we had planned for the week involved daytrips out of town or drinks/meals in town and the notion of 45 minute bus rides multiple times a day for the sake of saving a few dozen pesos on accomodation was starting to seem a bit hubristic. Why did we keep making things difficult for ourselves with this stuff??

Arriving eventually into Camping Suizo, a relaxed, family-run site with a small pool and grill spaces by each plot, we shook off the concern that everyone else there was clearly driving and that the boy showing us around was non-committal about the existence of any minimarkets nearby. As we pitched up in the sunshine, I sent a tired Toby off to buy a beer and we told ourselves firmly it would be fine. The test would be shops nearby and after a dusty walk down the highway as the sun rose far overhead and dogs hid in the shade, we found the Holy Grail. Good fresh, CHEAP butchery counter, good fresh veg outside and some genral sundries were within walking distance. We prepared lunch at the site, showered and breathed a sigh of relief. It was all good. Our Bariloche luck was behind us and this week would be one of our best yet.

At Vines of Mendoza. See? I´m writing notes, it´s entirely scholarly.

And it was actually, indisputably idyllic, the odd domestic squabble aside (together 24/7 for 16 weeks and counting ;-)). The best way I can descibe it is as the mix of high and low brow living we tend to enjoy best. We stayed cheaply on a friendly campsite full of Argentinian families - grilling around three times that week (including New Year`s eve), making delicious lunches of spicy  guacamole, tomato, basil and cheese, popping into the pool occasionally and sleeping well in the shade as the powerful dry heat of the day, filtered through tall treees, receded a little. And each day we´d take the 30-40 minute bus into town, often followed by another hour or two back out into the surrounding countryside for our wine visits. And then - lo, was money spent.

Before arriving we had set up two key reservations - the first for a Malbec tasting at the phenomenal Vines of Mendoza our first evening, a tasting room in town with superlative knowledge of the regions wines and bodegas and a crucial first stop for new visitors seeking to orient themselves in Mendoza and plan their vineyard trips. The second was at the renowned 1884 Francis Mallman restaurant in the southern suburb of Godoy Cruz, dinner for the 2nd January. 

Other than these we hit the week free as birds. Jumping on the bus into town each day, it felt like we hit the best of both worlds precisely - we were constantly busy but in the best kind of way. And between packed tasting schedules which saw us sample over 60 wines during the course of the week (it`s a damn dirty job but some wino´s got to do it, right?), we`d wander around Mendoza itself, stretch out in the parks, or chill out back at the campsite.

We will post a few updates on the details of the week, hopefully with more specifics on each bodega and tasting notes, but as an overview, it all started with Vines of Menoza. Sampling their classic Malbec tasting on our first night, five great examples of a grape we have long been crazy, but under-informed about, we flexed our tasting muscles (taking copious notes like the geeks we are) and quizzed the staff on the best way to structure some of the trips we wanted to take. We landed firmly on our feet with the warm and enthusiastic Cecilia who gave us the quintessential bike route via four key bodegas and one olive farm in Maipu, where we planned to spend the following day. We also picked up some valuable advice about how to approach Lujan de Cujo, a second important region a little further out of town, and a hit list of bodegas which would be accessible by bus. After a delectable re-aquantance with Malbec where I struggled valiantly to raise my tasting prowess above the level of ´mmm, red´/ `mmm, redder!`, we grabbed a pre-dinner glass of wine a few streets away and eventually wandered, completely by chance, into Maria Antonieta on Belgrano for dinner. A brand new project just started by former Mallman`s manager Vanina Chimeno, we were bowled over by our good fortune as we tucked into our most enjoyable meal since Buenos Aires in a friendly, casual and elegant setting (see Toby´s forthcoming blog for the foodie details...) 

And so on to Maipu where, an hour out of town by bus, we rented bargaintastic 20 peso bikes from the splendid paterfamilia Mr Hugo - who greets every gringo through his gate as a long-lost son or daughter and waves you off with a beaming smile, a handy map and reminders to apply suncream and drink plenty of water. The oldest Mendoza wine regiona, Maipu has become the most accessible area to do independently, with plenty of bodegas close by one another and bike rental shops lining the long dusty Urquiza road. With the sun climbing higher we sped to our furthest stop first, the French owned and styled boutique bodega Carinae (you´ve never seen T pedal so hard as in pursuit of his first drink, ahem, tasting, of the day). After an excellent tour and first tasting session, the olive farm cross the road provided a tasty platter of breads, olives and tapenades before we were guided around the farm itself and learned more about the pressing process.  In the baking afternoon heat, still a shock from the Patagonian chill, we visited Familia Di Tommaso for old-school Italian charm and Mevi for beautiful modernist architecture amidst a stunning location in the late afternoon glare; vines as far as the eye can see and a lovely glass-fronted tasting room and patio. The wines of the day hadn´t knocked us out - figuratively or literally (thankfully as we pedalled back to Mr Hugo under a remorseless 35 degree sun in the early evening) - but it was a perfect first day of vineyard visits and the Maipu cycle-route makes this a great, budget-friendly introduction to the region. We came away clutching a Mevi Torrontés, one of the hits of the day, a grape typically further north in the sub-altiplano Salta area of Argentina and already beginning to cast a spell on us. We got home after dark to hit the grill Argentinian style: late, smoky and utterly delicious.

No rest for the wicked and the next morning we were up at six (What?!) for another hard day´s tasting in the super-sexy Uco Valley region. For this we had opted for a tour, as the least accessible, highest altitude wine region from the city, with much more dispersed bodegas, we would have struggled to make it independently. The thicker skinned, stressed-out and thirsty grapes produced by Uco´s tougher climate set against the Andean foothills are creating some of the area´s most exciting results, so we went with Ampora Wine Tours to ensure we made the most of the visit and got the full information blast.  The tours don´t come cheap but in Luciana we found an informed, fun and enthusiastic guide, for whom no question was too tough nor to daft to dignify a response (as Cecilia in Vines advised, she once had a tourist ask how many bricks there were in a cellar she was guiding them through, so the bar for moronic enquiry is set pretty high for them!) Our merry band of four couples - one Texan, one New Yorker, one Brit-American and ourselves - rolled through the stunning sunbleached foothills and the parched semi-desertified landscape ringed by Andean peaks, snowlines visible even as we staggered blinking from the air-con bus to exposed expanses of vineyard on our hottest day yet. We kicked off with the medium-sized Atamisque, with a barrel tasting, showing us just how far six months in oak will take a Cab-Sauv, and learned that the best time to taste is apparently first thing in the morning before brushing your teeth, before anything impairs the palete (´That´s why I keep a bottle open by the bed,´ our fellow Londoner quipped under his breath. ´It´s only professional,´we agreed). A large, jovial tasting followed the science part but, again, we didn´t discover anything that took our breath away. Interestingly, it was the whites - and the Chardonnay in particular - that we were most interested in here; which became an interesting theme, given that the reds of Mendoza are the heavy hitters and the ones that draw you in. But both the Torrontés and the Chardonnays of the region turned out to be quite an eye-opener as the week wore on.

Happy Toby, happy wine-grower at Gimenez Rilli

Gimenez Rilli is where the day became interesting for us; a small-scale, family run vineyard in a beautiful setting. We toured the winery and cellar, tried another barrel sample and then filed out for a spectacular tasting. The group was nicely warmed up by this time, the three wines superlative and our host was warm and welcoming, topping up glasses and even bringing out his grandmothers homemade empanadas (my best yet in Argentina, vegetarian empanadas tending to be a bit of an afterthought in most places!). And what a smart man: we bought a caseload to ship home, a bottle of their Malbec Reserva and the phenomenal Torrontés for New Year´s Eve (backpacking, scmackpacking... in fact I think we had entirely forgotten budgetary constraints by this point). Then came lunch, a six course special, with wine flight at the opulent Andeluna Cellars where, despite the note about the crazy vegetarian having been lost in the post, tasty cheese-based alternatives were whipped out wherever a fish or steak reared its head on the menu. The setting here is truly stunning and had we been touring independently, we´d certainly have stayed longer for a drink on the shaded patio. As it was, this was our last stop before the long drive back and we lingered over the deserts, gossiping about travel, wine and hitting our companions up for tips on San Fransisco (only a few months away). A fabulous, informative day - though we did hit town feeling that for the price and distance, another vineyard and tasting could probably have been squeezed in.

Within our first day or two in Mendoza, we had decided to avoid some of the stresses we`d met with in Bariloche by styling New Year itself as a big BBQ with some good wines back at our grill at Camping Suizo - no fuss, no taxis and no angsting over reservations or closed restaurants and bars. After our packed first three days, we were ready for this and having test-drived our grill, prepared for a laid-back New Year´s eve. After a lazy morning at the campsite we went into town for a pasta lunch and some supplies before heading back to pick up the veggies and steak from our local. We started firing up the grill around 8pm and then saw in the British New Year with a batch of tasty Chileno Pisco Sours, toasting all the challenges and new adventures in store for our loved ones this year. A few hours of leisurely prep and grilling later we sat down to enjoy steak, proveleta, roast potatoes, aubergine and onion, guacamole and roasted corn - T with a Gimenez Malbec and me with the Mevi Torrontés. We were a minute or two late with the bubbly for midnight, (the fireworks from the El Challao clubs were the first clue) - ´Guys, a head´s up please!´ we exclaimed to the chilled-out campsite, half-full of Argentine families quietly doing their thing free from fanfare or fuss. Then we sat up with our wines until around 3, picking at leftovers and chatting tipsily before crawling back into our tent. Pretty damn perfect. 

The next day too, was I think the best New Year´s day of my adult life - it usually, disgraceful to admit, being a slightly queasy Morning-After-the-Night-Before. But at Camping Suizo on 1st January 2013, with merely a hint of fogginess, we woke up after a lie-in to make a simple tasty brunch with goats cheese, guac, tomatoes, peaches and bread - washed down with the Gimenez Rilli Torrontés. We lolled about the site through the afternoon, chasing the shade as the heat intensified and watching as some families packed up and others arrived, then lolled around the chilly poolside before heading into town for dinner.

New Year´s Day brunch. Bliss.

Our last key Mendoza highlight was Lujan de Cujo, another renowned sub-region a little further than Maipu but still public-transport accessible. We made three bookings then after another early start took the Number 1:19 bus from town, after some misadventure, to hit our first port of call,  Luigi Bosca. Rushing in late and breathless - only to discover, inevitably, in South America, that no one is the least bit phased - we shared a detailed and highly informative tour around the successful medium-sized winery, run by the Arizu Family for four generations, with a friendly Mexican couple followed by a tasting of several of their key wines including the prized Icono. From here came one of the most memorable and touching meetings of the week, our visit to Carmelo Patti just down the road. Carmelo is a living legend in Mendoza; everyone knows him, everyone recommends you visit him and yet it is hard to get a handle on his renown until you meet him. Creating each wine personally, it feels that Carmelo is literally the beating heart and soul of Mendoza wine country. After our too-brief half an hour with him, we came away feeling profoundly moved by the experience and holding a bottle of his classic 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon -  more on this visit later from T.

And from there to Lagarde over the road, one of the big boys on the Argentine wine scene. A stunning courtyard lunch, with wine flight - I would find it very hard to top this as a meal-in-context. Fantastic friendly service, a delicious gnocchi vegetarian option for the main course and a succession of gorgeous wines sipped in the dappled early afternoon sunlight. The kind of time lapse you want to bottle. After the tour, we took in a final shorter tasting to work out what bottles would make up the case for shipping (yes, again). Hopping back on the long bus to town slightly tipsy and sun-drenched from a spectacular day, we had a moment of doubt about the wisdom of our pre-booked tasting evening at Ampora Wines who have just launched a new Wine Lounge. The sprint across town (late, late again...) thankfully kicked us into shape and a thoroughly pleasant evening was spent with a nice bunch of people as we indulged in a final Malbec tasting to bookend an awesome week. Unfortunately, the information-aspect was a bit of a letdown as we were surprised for $35 not to have a more guided session; instead after a quick initial discussion of each, we were largely left to our own devices and the chat rapidly turned to travel stories and tips. Great fun, but we´d hoped for a bit more structured tasting.

And so we could not have bettered this week. With Chile knocking on the door, our liver a little slow and our wallets depleted, it was time to move but Mendoza has definitely made its mark and new ideas, ambitions and wanderlusts abounded after just these seven short days. We spent our final night in town itself - having dismantled Camp Wino and bid a sad farewell to our lovely little home on the shaded hill. Here we saw out our last Mendoza sunset in the best way possible: with Carmelo´s 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, full of complexity and soul much like the man himself, lounging and people-watching in the lovely Plaza Espana. Salud!

And so on through the Andes to Chile.