Day 30 – 33: Mendoza – Wine and Dine

September 12 – 15, 2015

Buoyed by the positive experience in Bariloche, we arrived in Mendoza with new found enthusiasm for Argentina. Even more so because we knew that great food and awesome wines awaited us on our self-drive trip!

WHY MENDOZA

Mendoza is a city known for its wine, made by the numerous sprawling vineyards (bodegas) just outside of the city. In fact, it’s accounts for nearly 2/3 of the country’s production. And that’s a lot for a country which is the largest wine producer in Latin America, and 5th largest in the world. Though we aren’t connoisseurs, we love wines, and we (or at least Vik) learnt to appreciate wines (especially Italian ones) in our foodie expeditions in Singapore. Rave reviews from friends and online, coupled with cheap independent wine-tasting tours, plus the idea of really affordable 5-course wine pairing meals that included the best Argentinian beef, meant that there’s no excuse not to indulge ourselves!

Day 1

We headed into the Andesmar office once we got our bearing in the rather big bus terminal. While checking with the service staff for tickets 3 days later (so that we did not have to walk back to the bus station again), Vik noticed a ticket price on the screen that had an “X”. He couldn’t believe his eyes. HALF PRiCE!? Half expecting a negative response, Vik smoothly asked if he could get those tickets. Without batting an eyelid, the lady said that they were semi-cama tickets and were available. AR$665/pax for an 18 hr ride to Salta = SCORE! The day had started well.

15 minutes later, we checked into Hostel Lao. Owned by a couple (Mike & Celeste) who ran ads for their other properties on Airbnb, it was situated in a slightly quieter area about 10 mins walk from the city center, and about 5 mins from the car rentals. Long story short: Vik tried to book another property in Lujan de Cuyo through Airbnb, but deliberated a little too long, so they could only put him up at the hostel. It wasn’t cheap, but it was definitely good. Spacious themed rooms (we stayed in Tango), great showers, pretty impressive breakfast (crème brulee, cinnamon apples), coupled with excellent tips and lovely big dogs.

Our double sharing room with private bathroom in Hostel Lao

We were glad for the immediate availability such that we could freshen up and drop our stuff. Refreshed and ready, we headed out. We took the hostel’s offer for the free and easy bike tour with Baccus bikes (AR$100), borrowed the hostel’s bus card, and took the bus 11 to Lujan de Cuyo (a good 45 mins away). Lujan De Cuyo and Maipu are the 2 main areas where all the winemakers are, but there areplenty everywhere, which is why renting a car is still necessary to explore the different areas.

Bike tour in Lujan de Cuyo area

That said, the bike tours are a great way to explore too! We were given a map, a detailed briefing, and a rough itinerary of which wineries should hit. We ended up heading in the same direction with a couple from the cycling capital of the world: Amsterdam. No pressure.

First stop was Pulmary: a small family owned winery that produces organic wine. Short and interesting tour by the son who gave up his law degree to pursue wine making instead. Can’t say much about the wine he put into our glasses straight from the tank, other than that it was fresh, light and crisp. AR$50 ~5SGD, 3 drinks and 30mins later, we moved on.

Lunch at Lagarde

The Dutch quickly demonstrated that cycling was in their blood, and cycled easily ahead of us. Truthfully, we didn’t do too bad. Really. Heeding the advice of the Dutch couple, we dismissed our hunger pangs at Pulmary to have a wine-pairing lunch at our second stop: Lagarde. We each had a 2-course meal, and were really impressed with the quality of both the food and wines.

This simple pappardelle tastes amazing

Curried chicken. IKR. What were we thinking? But it's surprisingly yummy!

Stomachs satisfied, we had enough time for one more visit: Carmelo Patti. Sounds Italian? Yeah he was. But found his niche producing old Malbecs and Cab Savs and stayed in Mendoza for the past 13 years. We arrived, just when this petite old man was about to start his tour. In Spanish it was, as expected, but lucky for us some of the other people in the group translated for us. He pretty much explained that he sold 5 types of wine, exports most of them, and built his business around word of mouth. Compared to the others, his reds were really different in taste, and a lot more earthen in nature. They weren’t priced cheap, especially his blends, as we found out, so were glad to have had a free tasting.

Super friendly Carmelo Patti welcoming the guests

Day 2

Sunday = empty streets at 9am. We were lucky to grab hold of a car, when all the rentals except one were closed. Even then, we only got our car at 11am. After a bit of discussion, we were allowed to rent the car for 1.5 days, as long as we returned it before they closed at 7pm the following day. In other words, we could use the car for almost 2 days, at a 1.5 day rate (AR$1125)!

Vik’s debut in a manual car on the right hand side was a stopover at the supermarket, where we stocked up on some drinks and snacks, before the long drive up the mountains to Aconcagua. Not exactly a map person, Leann was briefed after Vik studied the complex web of one way roads in Mendoza. Leann was told to spot certain road names and inform Vik when they passed so as to be sure of when they needed to turn. Boy, did we make a great team!

Our rental trusty Toyota

We were soon on the roads and passed some beautiful bodegas vineyards on Ruta 7. Gorgeous drive this was with varying landscapes as we climbed almost 2000m on the snaking 1, sometimes 2-lane highway. As this was the main highway that lead to the Chilean border, you could definitely imagine the huge ass container trucks and vehicles that travelled these roads at top speeds. Emboldened by the many “role models” en route, Vik was able to do the occasional overtake (legally of course), and managed to complete the drive in 3 hours, despite stopping for photos and lunch.

Aconcagua Park

We thought we were well past the snowy mountains in Bariloche and were totally caught unprepared when we saw snow everywhere at los penitentes. We could see fully functional and crowded ski resorts, with knee deep snow gathered at the side of the roads. With so much snow, Aconcagua was understandably closed. We couldn’t even see the mountains through the thick fog but took photos nonetheless.

When we ventured further to the cristo redentor, we encountered a traffic jam of container trucks (Like we mentioned earlier, it is the main highway leading to Chile). We turned back and stopped by the Puente del Inca: a natural mineral bridge formed by the deposits that flowed out from what used to be hot springs. Beside it lay the remnants of the baths that told the story of a once luxurious hotel.

We soon found our way back as the sun set, taking a slightly shorter time as Vik built up quite a bit of confidence. After dropping by the hostel to freshen up, we checked in at renowned restaurant/winery Francis Mallman 1884 (Escorihuela) for dinner. Leann had smashed beef tenderloin while Vik had a.. . he cant't remember but it was goooood.

We're a bit underdressed for this posh restaurant. But, whatever, we can afford it.

It was easily the most delicious meal of our trip so far. Of course, the price was pretty dear compared to the restaurants we have had, but like-for-like in such a posh restaurant would have been easily double or triple the price in Singapore. As such, we decided that this was Vik’s early birthday celebration. Thanks for the sponsor Joel and Lershan!

Day 3

Belasco de Baquedano

After another lovely breakfast at hostel Lao, we chilled out a little before driving up 30 minutes to Ruta 7 once again for a wine pairing lunch at Belasco de Baquedano. This was the cheaper option and had 5 wines with 5 courses for only AR495. Before we had our meal, we were also given a short tour, which was alternative to the norm as we were introduced to the chamber/museum of smells. This housed the full range of smell specimens to educate people on the types of smells we could expect from wines and what they mean.

Other than the medium tenderloin that Vik rejected twice, the meal was stupendous. Great setting with a view of the vineyards and to the mountains beyond, delicious and well proportioned courses, and superb wines at a leisurely pace. Leann was unbelievably buoyant, and Vik soon realised his wife was more tipsy than expected. The joyous mood also encouraged Vik to buy their best malbec (Swinto) for a mere AR250. It tastes even better than our favourite Amarone, he said. Since it was also one of the more indulgent meals, we decided to call it our anniversary meal! Thanks to Joyce, Adeline, Teresa, Xinyang, and Jerry for sponsoring!

View from Belasco de Baquedano

We pushed on to Ruca Malen for another wine tasting, and although the wines tasting was pretty good, we were slightly underwhelmed for the 3 wines we tasted for AR130. That said, we both agreed we kinda liked the young Malbec, “nauquen” and bought it for AR85.

Full and satisfied, we returned the car, and walked around Mendoza city (finally) and found Leann a new sports jacket to replace the one she “misplaced” in Buenos Aires. Then, it was time to head back, pack and get ready for the following day’s bus to Salta!

Tips:

- Hostel Lao is a great though rather costly hostel. Location, rooms, breakfast, service, were pretty damn good. You could also check out what mike and celeste have on Airbnb.

- Do a wine cycling tour first to get a hang of how the bodegas are laid out and what to expect from the wine tastings. Baccus has pretty affordable and good bikes in the Lujan area. There's a discount if you are at Hostel Lao.

- If you'd like to have lunch/dinner at any wineries, do make reservations in advance. You can ask the hostel staff to help you do it.

- Some wineries require reservation for visits and tasting too. Check before you go and plan your day accordingly.

- Check the prices with all car rentals as they are side by side near the Sheraton. Make sure you check the cars thoroughly.

- Aconcagua is a good drive trip and will also give you a glimpse of where the rest of the big name bodegas are on Ruta 7.

- AR150 will get you a quarter tank when you top up petrol for a normal compact class car.

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