Beautiful tree in San Martin square.The Plaza Espana.
Young musicians performing on pedestrian street.
The small fountain in the main plaza.
The dust covers the usually blue sky.
The doors of our olf-fashioned elevator in Hotel International.
Inside the elevator.
Bottles being corked.
An over-sized bottle of wine at Lopez.
The waiting area at Lopez.
A truck of wine ready to leave Lopez.
The Alpes with fresh snow.
A few bottles for our cellar!
Peter coming up the steps at Zapata.
The new Zapata building on a Mayan temple design.
Enjoying a sparkling wine awaiting the tasting at Zapata.
Norton's new building.
Some bottles aging, but certainly not being dusted.
The owner's personal supply, well locked away.
This area is for the owner to entertain friends.
Young musicians performing on pedestrian street.The small fountain in the main plaza.
The dust covers the usually blue sky.
The doors of our olf-fashioned elevator in Hotel International.Inside the elevator.
Bottles being corked.An over-sized bottle of wine at Lopez.
The waiting area at Lopez.
A truck of wine ready to leave Lopez.
The Alpes with fresh snow.
A few bottles for our cellar!
Peter coming up the steps at Zapata.
The new Zapata building on a Mayan temple design.Enjoying a sparkling wine awaiting the tasting at Zapata.
Norton's new building.
Some bottles aging, but certainly not being dusted.
The owner's personal supply, well locked away.
This area is for the owner to entertain friends.
Saturday, Nov. 6 - Tues. Nov. 9
Tomorrow we leave Argentina for Chile, so I’ll do the last four days together. Not that Mendoza isn’t one of the nicest places we have been, but because we have done mostly wining here.
We arrive early on Saturday morning, so Peter arranges for our tickets to Santiago while I sit in the sun and watch the luggage. The depot is quiet and nobody seems in a rush. The hostel is clean and our room is large, but our private bathroom is across the hall. What we are not aware of is that our street is the Saturday night party street!
We have received an e-mail from Henry describing the area restaurants that he found good, so we walk over that way and explore. On Sarmiento street, there are not only lots of nice looking restaurants, but a hotel that turns out to be inexpensive, clean, nice staff, and quiet! As luck would have it they are not full. Peter, I know, is already thinking about moving, so, the following morning, after each of us has a fit-full sleep, we check out and check in. It turns out to have been an excellent decision. Thanks for the info, Henry.
We spend Saturday wandering around the many parks and checking on wine tours. Sunday, the winds come in off the mountains! It is the opposite of a Chinook. There is a name for this wind, which I can’t remember, but it feels warm and it fills the air with dust. As the city is filled with tree-lined streets, the place is a mess Sunday night with branches and leaves everywhere. Also, the following day, the temperature drops dramatically. It goes from around 30 C on Saturday to 15 C on Monday. I need a warm sweater for the tour on Monday.
This tour takes us to the Lopez Bodega. It is a very old vineyard, but has grown to be one of the biggest in the area. They only export 5% of their product. They make many levels of wine, from the most common “house” wines to fine, aged wines. Of course, the low-end stuff supports the ability to make premium wines. But, at all the levels, this bodega only uses cork stoppers. Also, they still age their reds in French-oak barrels. As with most of the larger companies in Mendoza, they have vineyards spread out over different areas and at varying altitudes, so their wines can be quite complex. We finish the tour and go to their dining room for lunch. It is four courses and quite wonderful. We start with a pumpkin soup, then a cheese and green onion filled pastry, followed by the main plate of steak with vegetables and roasted potatoes with a tasty sauce, and end with a chocolate pie with ice cream and a bit of sauce. We are ready for a siesta, but we now join a larger group (who arrived for a later tour with no lunch) and visit a smaller bodega and then an olive processor.
Today we are up early for a “private” tour which consists of four wineries we have chosen with the tour company on Sunday, one of which will serve us lunch. Our driver, Walter, is a little late, so we arrive at the first bodega, Zapata, with the tour already in progress. The new building is built in the form of a Mayan temple. It is quite extravagant. The setting is beautiful, with the great picture windows opening to the snow-covered Andes in the distance. The wine is very good, but you have to pay for the tasting. (Which we knew before we went.)
The second winery is the Norton brand. Again, it is a very old company with some 100 year-old vines. They are not as steeped in tradition as the Lopez, but still do consistently good wines. It was recommended that we do lunch here, but it is not included in our “tour” price, but we need to eat so do have lunch. I have a beet, lettuce, cheese, and walnut salad, followed by a spicy roast lamb in pastry main course. Peter ops for the steak with a side salad. Both are wonderful, but, as we have a bottle of wine to accompany the meal, dessert is out of the question!
Our third winery, Alta Vista, is quite a small one, yet the Malbec is the nicest I have tasted, so we get a bottle. I am going to have to resurrect my Peruvian bag to carry it as there is no room in my suitcase. Oh, the troubles I go to for a bottle of wine!
We back out on the fourth bodega, a supposedly interesting owner, but we are both tired - I think the meal and all the wine didn’t help - and we return to our hotel happy.
Unfortunately, when we go to get Peter’s pants from the laundry - our luck changes. Yesterday, when we went to get our laundry, Peter was walking through the mega-grocery store to pick up some water and fruit, when an employee dropped a bag of something liquid into a basket. Unfortunately, the top popped-off and the liquid splashed onto Peter’s pants and hand. When he got to me and showed me the stain, I couldn’t tell what it was but it looked like some kind of grey oil. Anyway, to make a long story short, the company let us bring the pants to the laundry place to see if they could clean the stain, which they could not after five tries today. The Carrefour people found Peter an “almost as good but more expensive” pair of pants to replace they ones that are now stained and unusable. Now it will be my job to hem another pair of pants. I just did the stained ones when we first arrived in Buenos Aires!
We don’t have a lot of plans after Santiago, Chile, though we would like to go to the lake country. I think we will go to a travel agent and see what they suggest. The guide books are not very helpful. Chow!
Tomorrow we leave Argentina for Chile, so I’ll do the last four days together. Not that Mendoza isn’t one of the nicest places we have been, but because we have done mostly wining here.
We arrive early on Saturday morning, so Peter arranges for our tickets to Santiago while I sit in the sun and watch the luggage. The depot is quiet and nobody seems in a rush. The hostel is clean and our room is large, but our private bathroom is across the hall. What we are not aware of is that our street is the Saturday night party street!
We have received an e-mail from Henry describing the area restaurants that he found good, so we walk over that way and explore. On Sarmiento street, there are not only lots of nice looking restaurants, but a hotel that turns out to be inexpensive, clean, nice staff, and quiet! As luck would have it they are not full. Peter, I know, is already thinking about moving, so, the following morning, after each of us has a fit-full sleep, we check out and check in. It turns out to have been an excellent decision. Thanks for the info, Henry.
We spend Saturday wandering around the many parks and checking on wine tours. Sunday, the winds come in off the mountains! It is the opposite of a Chinook. There is a name for this wind, which I can’t remember, but it feels warm and it fills the air with dust. As the city is filled with tree-lined streets, the place is a mess Sunday night with branches and leaves everywhere. Also, the following day, the temperature drops dramatically. It goes from around 30 C on Saturday to 15 C on Monday. I need a warm sweater for the tour on Monday.
This tour takes us to the Lopez Bodega. It is a very old vineyard, but has grown to be one of the biggest in the area. They only export 5% of their product. They make many levels of wine, from the most common “house” wines to fine, aged wines. Of course, the low-end stuff supports the ability to make premium wines. But, at all the levels, this bodega only uses cork stoppers. Also, they still age their reds in French-oak barrels. As with most of the larger companies in Mendoza, they have vineyards spread out over different areas and at varying altitudes, so their wines can be quite complex. We finish the tour and go to their dining room for lunch. It is four courses and quite wonderful. We start with a pumpkin soup, then a cheese and green onion filled pastry, followed by the main plate of steak with vegetables and roasted potatoes with a tasty sauce, and end with a chocolate pie with ice cream and a bit of sauce. We are ready for a siesta, but we now join a larger group (who arrived for a later tour with no lunch) and visit a smaller bodega and then an olive processor.
Today we are up early for a “private” tour which consists of four wineries we have chosen with the tour company on Sunday, one of which will serve us lunch. Our driver, Walter, is a little late, so we arrive at the first bodega, Zapata, with the tour already in progress. The new building is built in the form of a Mayan temple. It is quite extravagant. The setting is beautiful, with the great picture windows opening to the snow-covered Andes in the distance. The wine is very good, but you have to pay for the tasting. (Which we knew before we went.)
The second winery is the Norton brand. Again, it is a very old company with some 100 year-old vines. They are not as steeped in tradition as the Lopez, but still do consistently good wines. It was recommended that we do lunch here, but it is not included in our “tour” price, but we need to eat so do have lunch. I have a beet, lettuce, cheese, and walnut salad, followed by a spicy roast lamb in pastry main course. Peter ops for the steak with a side salad. Both are wonderful, but, as we have a bottle of wine to accompany the meal, dessert is out of the question!
Our third winery, Alta Vista, is quite a small one, yet the Malbec is the nicest I have tasted, so we get a bottle. I am going to have to resurrect my Peruvian bag to carry it as there is no room in my suitcase. Oh, the troubles I go to for a bottle of wine!
We back out on the fourth bodega, a supposedly interesting owner, but we are both tired - I think the meal and all the wine didn’t help - and we return to our hotel happy.
Unfortunately, when we go to get Peter’s pants from the laundry - our luck changes. Yesterday, when we went to get our laundry, Peter was walking through the mega-grocery store to pick up some water and fruit, when an employee dropped a bag of something liquid into a basket. Unfortunately, the top popped-off and the liquid splashed onto Peter’s pants and hand. When he got to me and showed me the stain, I couldn’t tell what it was but it looked like some kind of grey oil. Anyway, to make a long story short, the company let us bring the pants to the laundry place to see if they could clean the stain, which they could not after five tries today. The Carrefour people found Peter an “almost as good but more expensive” pair of pants to replace they ones that are now stained and unusable. Now it will be my job to hem another pair of pants. I just did the stained ones when we first arrived in Buenos Aires!
We don’t have a lot of plans after Santiago, Chile, though we would like to go to the lake country. I think we will go to a travel agent and see what they suggest. The guide books are not very helpful. Chow!
