Bodegas
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2008
1
76
107
Trip End
Jun 30, 2009
Maipu,
Cuyo,
Argentina
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The tourist office says that they are not recommending that tourists hire bikes and cycle around the "bodegas" (vineyards) at the moment as there have been alot of "robos". Dubious.....this may well be a way of pushing their half day trip to the bodegas in Maipu. Although we had wanted to cycle around, itīs boiling hot here so wine and cycling maybe a bit too much anyway.
As itīs only about 8 pounds per person we decide to go with the trip. It actually turns out to be really good. Maipu is just under an hour from Mendoza. This region boasts having some 900 plus wineries who produce unimaginable quantities for Argentine consumption and also for export.
We visit two bodegas. The first is called Weinert and is traditional in that it has a naturally, as opposed to artifically, cooled cellar and in that the wine is aged in massive oak barrels. They have been around since 1977. A bubbly Argentinian girl gives us a tour with commentaries in both Spanish and English and the bat flying around in the cellar makes for extra entertainment. We get to taste three wines in tiny quantities. Unfortunatley, one of these includes a dessert wine which neither of us are keen on at the best of times.
Then onto the second bodega, which our guide tells us is the smallest in Argentina. This is more like it. We drive off the main road onto a dirt track that leads straight into the winery. There are attractive old pieces of farming equipment around and an old wooden cart. They are more established dating back over 100 years. There motto is "bienbebidos" instead of "beinvenidos". They produce much less wine but do it with love. A guy from the winery shows us around and this time itīs all in Spanish so itīs good practice. I can understand a fair bit now if they speak at a normal speed but still feel like a tongue-tied idiot as they patiently look at me whilst I hash together a sentence.
We sit in an old barn and get to try the wines - basically three types from the cheaper young red Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlots to the in between ones that contain a proportion of wine that is oak-aged to the older ones that have been oak-aged and subsequently bottled and aged in the cellars. We buy two bottles of the cheap and cheerful wine - less than 3 pounds fifty a bottle. You wouldnīt get anything nearly as good as this stuff for three times the price in London.
The final stop is an olive factory that produces only extra virgin oil. The olive groves are nice to wander through. Carolina, an English-speaking guide, takes Joel and I through the process, machinery etc at top speed. She only pauses for breath a couple of times to give us some super intense eye contact and an agitated, "ok?Ļ We get to dip bread into the oil - delicious. The little shop has some lovely stuff including tapenade and sundried tomatoes. - tempting but not ideal for when youīre on the move.
Whatever way you do it visiting the bodegas is a fun thing to do here.
