How we ended up with a 5 Litre bottle of wine

We arrived in Mendoza after a quick couple of days in Santiago. Beacuase of Easter, there were only a handfull of average to poorly rated hostels available, for higher prices that we expected. Our hostel was decent. The beds were terrible. The breakfast was low quality white bread with some sort of jam, and bad coffee. But overall, the hostel was clean, and fairly quiet. We got into Mendoza around 1 in the morning, after crossing the border from Chile, and went straight to sleep in order to wake up at 8 AM the next day to head to Maipu. Maipu is where the vineyards are. And, to make things more interesting, you´re permitted to rent bicycles, and ride bikes from one vineyard/brewery/absynth house to the next, tasting as you go.

We met some other tourists on the bus, and joined up for a day of wine and fun. The bike rental people sent us to the olive oil factory first, where we had a quick 2 minute tour of their lone, 2 yr old olive tree, and were told that their rel trees are some 15 km away. However, the tour was concluded with a tasting. At the first table we sampled olive spreads, balsamic vinegar, and different oils on fresh bread. At the second table we tried their jams/dulce de leche on more bread. And, at the third table we each received two shots of liquor. I´m not entirely sure why the olive oil factory has a liquor section made out of everything except olives, but they do. I was told that their Absyth was made with wormwood, which is no longer used in European varieties, so I tried it. It succeeded in burning my chest enough that I had a minor cough for the rest of the day. For my second shot I tried a rose liquor, which was much more delicate (as you would imagine) and much tastier.

From here, we rode our bikes about 8km to the first vineyard, Familia di Tommaso, which was an older, traditional style vineyard. The tour was significantly longer, and we all learned something new about wine. After the tour, we received 4 tastings, a Sauvignon Blanc, a Malbec, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a sweet dessert wine with a savor of walnuts. They were all good, but the dessert wine was what struck everyone´s fancy, and we bought a couple of different bottles to enjoy later together. Later came much sooner than we expected, since we soon discovered that Rich had a flat tire, and we needed to call on the hire place to swap bikes. We went to the patio of the vineyard to drink a bottle of wine while we waited, and were told that we could only drink bottles bought through the waitress there, so we´d need to bring our shop purchased wine to the picnic area. The picnic area, about 100m from the winery was a couple of logs sitting next to random decaying bits of metal scrap. Nevertheless, the wine was just as tastey the second time around, and when we went back to our bikes, a fresh bike had been left for Rich.

We rode 3km back up the road to the next winery, Mevi, which was a small modern vineyard. At this point, we figured we´d already been to a few tours that day, so why not just buy a couple of bottles of wine between the 5 of us and drink them there? It´s much more cost efficient that way. So, we bought a Torrontes first, and when that had gone, a good red. The wine seemed to be getting better and better, and we savored our drinks for a full 1.5 hours at the second vineyard before we realized it was getting late, and we needed to make it to our last location before they closed at 6 PM.

The last location was just a quick 2k down the side roads to the beer garden. After a full day of drinking wine (in the sun), and riding bikes (in the sun) it was nice to sit in the shade and eat some pizzas, a few empanadas, and have just a quick one or two beers. Stuffed, hot, and very happy, we rode our bikes back to the rental place, with the intention of turning them in and going straight back to Mendoza. However, Mr Hugo´s bikes turned into a patio party with all the different groups mingling in the evening. We sat around for a couple of hours meeting new people and talking about our trips. Someone on a bicycle said something to one of the guys at our table and gave a thumbs up. Rich gave a thumbs up back, and the guy returned with a 35peso (6 USD) 5 litre bottle of wine, that we apparently (mis)communicated wanting. Mr Hugo quickly came by to pop it open, and it took me 10 minutes to chase him down to put the cork back in it. And so, at around 10:30 PM that night, the 5 of us parted ways with promises to meet again tomorrow in the park, to drink the jumbo wine.