Lagares Beltrn Mendoza

... the rest of us and loving every minute. Sat down with some guys from Chile for a little while and spent most of it in silence as my Spanish self learning stalled about 6 weeks ago. Did a lot of pointing and gesturing though, will be champion at charades by the time I have finished here I think.<br>Had a sore head this morning after consuming red wine and beer again, will I never learn? Probably go to the pictures as we have a few hours to kill before another bus journey tonight.

... make into 8 or 9 different wines including two blends which they themselves have invented. So the whole place felt very personal and we got to try lots of wines (outside sitting at wooden tables in the sunshine) including some of their own mixes. Needless to say, we ended up buying a bottle of the Malbec Rose which we are saving for a rainy day :-).<br> <br> In the late afternoon we did have a slightly amusing incident which instilled mild panic ...

... Although if it were day light the drive would probably have been effin gorgeous). The Aussies joined us and we went straight from Tucuman to Mendoza. The bus was supposed to be 12 hours and serve us breakfast and lunch... Instead it was 15 hours with NO FOOD whatsoever. Fortunately it was comfortable and about 14 hours into it some man came on the bus with coolers of sandwiches for 5 pesos. We all gave ...

... evening friends from another hostel invited us over for dinner followed by some more argentinian wine and my spanish was tested as the Argentinians taught us some new drinking games...in Espanol! My last day in El Calafate, I attempted a hike to the mountains behind the town. All began well until 2 hrs later I reached a river. Having got this far, I decided to stepping-stone my way across the river. Two-thirds of the way, my iPod slipped off my ...

... the meat was very high and underneath the burnt edges tasted great. The King Crab starter, with spiced crushed potatoes was also good. Today I took a vineyard tour organised by Ampora Wine Tours to the Uco Valley. This is the new area for Mendoza wines, and I was reading some rave reviews before I left the UK. They are well deserved. The vineyards go to about 1700M above sea level, which gives the winemaker ...

... would have better signage. This hotel charges $200.00 a night. 140 pesos/less than $40 plus 60 pesos/$17.00 for half hour massage was how much it costs to use the hot springs for a day. That includes being "wisked" away to a dressing room to change, full use of the springs, mud baths, full pool and buffet lunch. The setting was perfect. Right next to a small river valley with cliffs hanging over and the springs were done very tasteful as well. Many pools connecting with

So we´re finally in Mendoza. We´re waiting to finally meet our boss and for him to take us to the winery to start our first day of work. It has been quite the adventure getting here. We arrived in Santiago, Chile on Wednesay morning. My lovely friend Andres picked us up at the airport and took us for lunch and a quick tour of Santiago. We then took the bus for an amazing ...

... room, the centre of which is a 3 ton stone table, which was put in in 3 seperate sections, and then the roof was put on once the table was in place. On 3 of the walls are wine racks from floor to ceiling, all containing various wines that Salentein produce. It goes without saying that the wines were very good, but I am starting to understand the tasting a bit more, and what I like in a wine and what I don´t . . and have got used to tipping away the remains of a ...

... nice Italian meal out with a very nice Malbec - the first of many, I think... Tomorrow we are going to hire bikes in Maipu and cycle around four wineries, and then on Wednesday we are going in a bus to visit more wineries in Lujan de Cuyo- as you can probably tell, we are largely visiting wineries! I think we may get in a few mountain sightings too before heading back to Santiago on Saturday.

... and close to many good wineries. Inge-Marie had a hard time making the booking as the manager spoke very little English and our Spanish was shaky at the best of times, but we did manage to get a cabana and mentioned that we would be arriving by bus so did not need a pick-up. Just to re-confirm it all we decided to give them a courteous call the following morning and just re-confirm that we didn't need a pick-up and that we'd make our own way there. We found out from the ...