Robles de Besares Mendoza

Hola,
Om in te haken op het voorgaande verhaal. Afgelopen zondag was ik naar een wedstrijd van Boca Juniors geweest. Alleen toen we bij het stadion aankwamen was het verdacht rustig. In het begin dachten we nog dat de wedstrijd een uur later zou beginnen, maar het bleef rustg. Na navraag bleek dat de wedstrijd gespeeld werd in een ander stadion wegens een concert later op die avond. Snel een taxi naar dat andere stadion genomen toch ...

... ends fairly early at about 4:00am because we all plan to visit the wineries in the morning.
This morning I actually get the most sleep of the Mendoza trip, roughly 4 hours, and leave energized to see the "Bodegas" of Mendoza. Again, my expectations are quite far off, as this wine tour is much less like Napa Valley than I thought and most places are actually offsite from the vineyards themselves. We get quite a mixture of wineries though, from a new, modern company, to a small ...

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We got to Mendoza mid-morning and found our hostel which was located fairly near the main part of town. Having set down our bags we toddled off to the centre which is lovely with tree-lined avenues and large green plazas.After wondering why the leaves were all still an autumnal shade of copper though here it is the middle of winter, we sat down for a Quilmes - Argentinian - beer in one of Sarmiento Ave´s many outdoor cafes.

That evening we ate at a fantastic Italian ...

... about a half hour even though there were 50 people ahead of us when we got into line. We then walked across the garage to get our entry stamps into Argentina which also didn´t take that long at about 45 minutes. The long part, which consisted of a thorough search of (almost) everyone's things, started only after every single person on our bus got stamped.

From there, the bus was permitted to roll to the AR side where only 1 of the 15 Argentinian border guards that were ...

... where I was only asked for identification. He gave me another number and this little electronic device that kinda looked like something you'd get at Olive Garden to tell you when your table is ready. As I walked away, I could only think of how inconsistent it was that they can't be organized enough for this simple process to take less than two hours, but you get a device to tell you that they are ready for you. Anyway, I walked away ...

... 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 ...

... covering the tracks on all sides. I guess that it felt like riding in the subway... Along the line from time to time we go through ghost villages, relics from the golden age of that abandonned means of tranportation. The window panes are broken, the doors that haven't disappeared don't close, and everywhere reigns a 30s and 40s atmosphere. Going over all those high passes in the Andes, all those valleys, many memories from St-Exupéry's "Terre des Hommes" ("Wind ...

... etc. Jose also doesn´t speak english so our Spanish has needed to improve quickly, and I´m happy to say that it is. We work every day, but Sundays is only half days, and harvest is going to be short and quick! Now for the important stuff: Yesterday I had the best meal I´ve ever had in my life. Bold statement. But true. We went with Juan and Rodrigo to Vista Flores to this restaurant called Amason ...

... fruit trees and rosemary bushes. Finally we moved on to one of the most amazing buildings I have ever seen, let only the most amazing vineyard. The company is called O.Fourneir, and they are owned by a Spaniard, and they do not make any Malbec wines. They use the spanish Tempranillo grape, and then blend this with more familiar grapes to create some lovely wines. However the building outshines the wines outright - If a James Bond villain were to ever give up the ...

... with a big congress in the city involving 3,000 gynaecologists) so we had to settle for a lodge somewhere outside the city and I had absolutely no idea where or how far away it was. When we got into the taxi at the airport, I showed the driver the address and asked him how far it was, he said, "Ohhhhh, very far. Very far...maybe 200 kilometers". You have got to be kidding, I thought while Frits glared at me. Then the driver started to chuckle and said, "I joke, I ...