Mendoza wine country

We found it: the best bottle of 3-dollar wine on the planet. Well, at least it’s the best bottle of 3-dollar wine we have ever had. San Huberto Roble Merlot 2008 (roble means “oaked”). A 6-yr-old oaked merlot, off the rack for 320 pesos (+/- 3 bucks at black market rates). We ran into it yesterday during an impromptu tasting as we whizzed by the San Huberto winery in Lujan de Cuyo – one of the big wine areas outside Mendoza. Shopping for wine in the 2 to 3-dollar range, even here, can be a bit hit or miss. This was a serious hit.

So that’s been our mission lately: cycle-touring around the wine areas south of Mendoza. It’s a bit challenging since unlike the Okanagan, our usual stomping grounds, things are spread out here. The terrain is flat as a pancake, so there’s lots of room for everyone to sprawl out. The wineries tend to be gigantic and spaced far apart. But we’re managing somehow. J

The tasting scene here is all over the map. Some are open for tasting, some are not. Some are free, some are not. Some require reservations, some do not. Some have it dialed, some do not. Again, we’re managing somehow. At one place, Bodega Trapiche, the señora sat us down in a lounge right out of downtown Toronto or Vancouver, lined up 4 bottles of wine, told us in English “drink as much as you want, stay as long as you want”, then walked away. We had the place to ourselves. It was a rainy day, so hey, we stayed for a while. Couldn’t get through the 4^th bottle though. J The next day, another winery (Bodega La Rural), we belly up to the tasting bar, point to the “basic testing”, which was the cheapest option, sit down at a table with 2 chairs as directed, and then watch as the señora brings over a tray with 6 full glasses of wine on it. She diligently points out the chardonnay, merlot, and malbec, then walks away. Whoa! Luckily there was a British couple there on the same program, so we shared a table and laughed and talked until they literally shut the place down and kindly asked us to leave. What did they expect? 12 glasses of wine...not gonna be quick and easy! Can’t imagine what the bigger options were...

As the fifth largest wine industry in the World, Argentina’s wine scene is huge and growing bigger every day. Amazingly though, 90% of production is consumed internally by Argentines...kind of tells you how serious they are about drinking wine. The 10% export market however is thriving and demand is up – largely driven by Malbec, Argentina’s claim to fame in the wine world. Malbec actually originated in France, but the grape does so well in Argentina, that it has become their signature grape. When our Canadian identity is revealed in tasting rooms, they love to tell us which of their wines are now available in Canada. In fact, when we were at Bodega (recall, bodega = winery) Trapiche, the señora was brimming with pride to tell us that they were the first Argentine winery to breach the Canadian market. Apparently Canada is a tough market to crack due to our arcane liquor laws...go figure!

Our base has been a cozy little family-run hostel (Hostel Huar) in the Mendoza suburb of Maipu. With all the usual comforts of home including kitchen and vine-covered courtyard (gotta love reaching up and grabbing a bunch of ripe grapes anytime you feel like it), it feels like home. It feels like home, because it is one. Our wonderfully friendly hosts, Pedro (a retired cop from the Mendoza police force) and Claudia putter around cleaning the place and keep it up. “Buenos dias, todo bien?” is their key phrase (“hello, everything is good”?).  It’s the kind of place where the TV is on in the background and their 15-yr-old dog is lying in the middle of the kitchen. The other night was their son’s 29th birthday. It was a good ole’ Argentine ho-down in the courtyard. The homies came over with their instruments and they rattled off their best Argentine classics. I took a turn on lead bongos which was a blast. Not sure if it was the wine, but having a gringo on bongos seemed to be a big hit. A lot of red wine went down (the 90% local consumption thing) and fun was had by all...a bit rough the next morning though J

It’s not all about wine. Another big ticket item around here, and one of Amy’s favourite food groups, is olives and olive oil. Just like the bodegas, olivicolas (olivicola = olive farm) offer tours and tastings. Being the first time either of us has even seen an olive tree, the olivicolas are really fascinating. There’s a big fat world of olive oil out there complete with local variatels, blends, and olive oil snobs. We will never look at supermarket olive oil the same way. Just like good wine, good olive oil is marked by blends and variatels like Arbequina, a famous Spanish variety, and Arauco, Argentina’s signature olive. Like the malbec story, Arauco olives came from Spain but thrive in the Argentine terroir. Did you know: the only difference between green and black olives, is time. Black olives are simply ripe green ones, and vice versa. And, did you know, all olives are the same species (olea europaea). Like dogs, there are simply different varieties (and a few subspecies) of the same species. Hmmm. Fascinating.

The highlight of Amy’s life (our wedding aside of course) just could have been the olive oil tasting at Olivicola Santa Augusta. It’s a wonderful old colonial building in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by olive trees. The señorita was lovely and did her best in English to show us her passion for olive oil.  We went for the 5-dollar “full tasting” which was basically lunch (Amy’s favourite snacks like cheese, baguette, sun dried tomatoes, olives), with wine, and of course, 4 varieties of olive oil. Tasting, or shall we say, “drinking” olive oil is an interesting experience. Like good wine, the subtleties of each variety come out, from spicy to smooth to strong. Funny thing. Afterwards she asked us if we would like to have a shot of generic supermarket olive oil for reference. Wow. After having the good stuff, the supermarket stuff tasted like the used cooking oil coming out the back of a McDonald’s. Oh no...not another expensive addiction to deal with J


OK, tomorrow we ride back to the big smoke and our Mendoza base hostel. Amy’s parents are flying in this weekend to meet us. That gives us a few days to do some housekeeping items. Things we bought earlier in the trip are starting to wear out, like a new front tire for the one I blew a couple days ago. It’s a tire we bought way back in Columbia. Oh, and 2 pairs of socks I bought in Ecuador. They’re done! Alrighty then, more on Mendoza with the parents soon. Chau chicos.