A brief entry about our stay in one of the world’s great wine regions.
We change countries, from Chile to Argentina. Our first stop is Mendoza. Mendoza lies at the foot of the hills that become the Andes. It’s a desert, so the extensive agricultural activity depends on a system of canals.
Mendoza is a pleasant city of tree-lined streets and squares.
Our first wine visit is the bodega of Tierras Altas.
It’s all about the malbecs.
We get to serve ourselves from the oak casks. Well, one cask anyway.
The next day, we go on a tour of three bodegas, The first is the Cecchin winery. They make organic wine.
Our guide spent a lot of time in Austin, Texas, so his English is fluent.
It’s always a novelty to see Christmas decorations large and small in a climate of no snow.
We also stop off at an olive oil producer, PasRai.
Of course, there are many types of olive oil.
Maria examines the biggest rosemary bush we’ve ever seen in the herb garden.
Our last stop is the Casa Corbel winery. We begin by sampling some whites in the olive orchard.
Then we move on to sampling reds in the cellar proper.
Casa Corbel has several resident dogs, all very friendly. One is named Rambo. This must be ironic, because he’s the gentlest creature imaginable.
On our last evening in Mendoza, we go on an Argentinian beef blow-out with a dinner at the Don Mario restaurant. It doesn’t disappoint.
Sight or Insight of the Day
How did we get to Mendoza? We fly from Calama in the north of Chile, spend overnight in Santiago, then next day take a bus over to Andes to Mendoza.
So the ‘sight’ of the day is easily the spectacular journey through the mountains.
We are torn between admiring the scenery and watching ‘Cruella’ on the onboard entertainment screen.
The ‘insight’ is the discovery that Argentine government inefficiency is still a thing.
We spend four hours(!) at Argentine customs as they leisurely process a dozen busloads of travelers.
Many decades ago, I did this trip in reverse (east to west). I’m sure the stop at customs didn’t take more than an hour. So much for progress.
