Mendoza: Wine Tasting

We left Easter Island, flew back to Santiago, put our watches forward 2 hours, and spent the night in the Holiday Inn at the airport, our last night in Chile. Next stop, Mendoza, Argentina.

 

On the map Chile's capital, Santiago, and Mendoza in The Cuyo province of Argentina look only a short distance apart.  The two are linked on the Argentinian side by the Uspallata Pass which climbs over 3000 meters (9,840 ft)in the shadow of Cerro Aconcagua, at 6,962 metres (22,840ft) the highest peak outside of Asia.  My Insight Guide described this as a spectacular trip, although warned of the danger of frequent rock and snow slides outside the brief summer season.  The guidebook picture of a tortuous, hairpin infested, switchback road appealed to my adrenalin fuelled driving instincts but set Anni's teeth on edge.  She recalls a nerve-racking experience in the winter in Utah some years ago where we cut across 60 miles of unmade tracks in a Cadillac in order to shorten our journey from Monument Valley to Las Vegas.  We learned on our return home that another English couple had died around the same time when their car went off the road. The husband perished in deep snow drifts when he went for help and the wife was not found until it was too late. Sadly, despite my enthusiasm, or maybe luckily in Anni's case, I could find no car hire company prepared to let us cross the border, so instead we took a short one hour flight with LAN from Santiago.

Church in the Plaza of Chacras de Coria

It was a short flight, only 170 miles, flying at 27,000 feet, so not that much clearance over the higher peaks. The views during the flight were amazing. It was a bright, cloudless day, and we were treated to panoramic views of the Andes, the higher peaks covered in snow.  On the Argentinian side of the mountain range the ground was criss-crossed with faint long, straight lines, running parallel to each other, perhaps about 5km apart,  and always intersecting at precise angles.  From the air they could have passed for the Argentinian equivalent of the Nazca Lines in Peru, although I suspect these were the remains of the fist irrigation channels built by the early settlers to bring water from the Andes to the fertile plains.

Mendoza has been destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt many times. It was founded by the Spanish in 1561, driven here from their territories across the Andes in Chile by reports that the area contained a vast wealth in precious minerals including gold.  Uranium, copper and lead mines can still be found scattered throughout the mountains, although it is petroleum that has brought real prosperity to the area.  Despite the dryness of the region the area is also the primary wine growing region in Argentina, itself the 5th largest wine producer in the world, with vineyards irrigated by the melt waters from the Andes.

There was some confusion when we picked up our rental car at the airport. I had already been quoted an extortionate amount for a one-way drop off fee, but the salesman wanted to charge us even more! I stood my ground and produced our documentation, which he insisted on copying to send off to Buenos Aires.  The argument pursued us to our destination as a message was waiting for us at the hotel to call Hertz. He wanted to keep the original documentation and give us back the copy.  Would we return to the airport to sort it out?  At this point I should explain there is no ring-road round Mendoza, and we had already driven through this city of 1million inhabitants to get here. I wasn't going back. Fortunately, the very helpful Mariella at the hotel agreed, so I took photographs of the documents, uploaded them to her computer, and she sorted it out from there. (I think!).  

Our hotel  is fantastic!! If you normally skip the "Eating & Sleeping" posts, don't miss this one, because Casa Glebinias in the small town of Chacras de Coria, 12km south of Mendoza, is simply outstanding.

After an hour to relax we made the short drive to a nearby vineyard for a tour and wine tasting session. But this was not just any vineyard. Alta Vista is one of the premier vineyards in Argentina, and has produced world famous wines that have received the most prestigious awards. Interestingly for over 100 years it was Spanish owned, but then a few years ago was taken over by the French producers of Taittinger Champagne. They still use some of the original processes, including allowing the wine to rest for 40 days between maceration and fermentation in concrete (originally adobe) vessels. For the Alta range, the grapes are individually hand picked by a specialised team, women only, apparently because they can discern a greater range of colours than men. This is supposedly borne out by a much lower incidence of colour blindness in women than in men.  Taittinger have taken the blending of grape varieties to a new level of sophistication, and the wines we tasted were proof of their success.  We tried the Alta red, it was exquisite, but at $120 US a bottle it was too exclusive for us.  However, $10 US for a large glass was a bargain! We enjoyed the Malbec ($30 US a bottle), were indifferent to the blended Bonarda ($20 US), but loved the Torrontes ($16 US), surprisingly so for us as we don't normally drink white wine. Freight charges of $468 US to the UK for 30 bottles ruled out sending any home, but armed with one bottle, we returned to our hotel, to enjoy a couple of hours of pure decadence before dinner.