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| Wine Country Argentina |
Our recent Argentinian wine-touring adventure started with a bus
trip from Buenos Aires to Mendoza City.
The cost of traveling by bus is considerably
cheaper than the two-hour flight, and we thought it would be an interesting budget-stretching
alternative, plus it would be a great way to see a piece of this enormous
country.
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| Great marketing for CATA |
The CATA International bus lines reeled us in with
promises of a relaxing and enjoyable ride with reclining bed-like seats,
blankets, pillows, breakfast, mid-day snacks, lunch with a glass of wine, and late-night snacks.
The price was half of what it would cost to fly two hours to
Mendoza City.
The trip was scheduled to take around fourteen hours on a
major freeway, with two drivers alternating every few hours to give them time
to rest and recuperate.
In reality, it was a hellacious eighteen-hour journey
visiting every small hamlet along the route to load and unload passengers and
freight, while our ever-increasing sore butts were stuck in airplane-style seats.
Next time, we’ll read the TripAdvisor reviews before booking.
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| CATA - two cookies for meals |
The promised on-board amenities such as blankets, pillows, and a glass of wine? Nope, nada, nothing.
The twelve people who had paid for the premium
seats (that was us) were served 3 ounces of instant coffee with two cookies at
nine in the morning, and another 3 ounces of instant coffee plus two cookies at
nine at night.
Around four in the afternoon, the bus stopped long enough for just
our small group of premium passengers
to hop off and purchase beer and pre-made sandwiches from a local taco stand.
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| CATA break the glass for emergency |
At least the on-board toilet worked, although the drivers’ ideas of cleaning
the communal toilet were a bit humorous.
It consisted of sprinkling a Dutch-Cleanser-style
cleaning powder on the toilet seat, preventing anyone from actually sitting
down.
We cancelled the remaining portion of the tickets and booked our return
airfare as soon as we had internet access in Mendoza.
So, not a great start to our envisioned luxury ride across
the landscape of Argentina, but it got better, a lot better, once we were settled
into the Sheraton Hotel in Mendoza City.
Our Alamo rental car pickup was
directly across the street from the hotel.
Easy peasy. Sign the papers, stash the car in the hotel parkade, and set out on foot to explore the vibrant
city of Mendoza. Abundant parks. Numerous lunchtime restaurants. Shops observe afternoon closing hours of two until five or six, reopening again
until nine in the evening. Gourmet restaurants that open at nine at night to
begin serving the evening meal. Normal bedtime in Argentina is well after
midnight.
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| Vibrant Mendoza City, in Mendoza Valley |
The cute young guy tilted his head and smiled at me,
“Where are you from?” He asked.
I replied, “We live in Mexico, but before that, we lived in
the Okanagan Valley in Canada. There are over 350 wineries in the Okanagan, and
almost all of them feature award-winning restaurants.”
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| Gutters collect rainwater for trees |
Still smiling, he said, “In this valley, there are over 1500
wineries.” He paused dramatically to make sure we were paying attention before
he continued, “of which about 200 will allow visitors, and only 30 have
restaurants. Reservations are also mandatory for the restaurants.”
Our mouths dropped open at that point. 1500
wineries and only 30 restaurants! Holy cow! Not what we expected at all.
We had envisioned driving from winery to winery along
twisty country roads, popping in here and there to sample the vintages. We’d perhaps
purchase a bottle to enjoy later, and maybe one or two to take back to Mexico
with us. Have a leisurely lunch, tour some more, and finally reach our next
hotel around cocktail time.
Alrighty then, let’s re-group and get a plan.
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| Award-winning O. Fournier Winery |
The hotel concierge booked us into his favourite, the O. Fournier
Winery, located in San Carlos, about 130 kilometers south of
Mendoza, for a one o’clock reservation.
That gave us time to explore the valley
a bit before our lunch. So off we go, armed with a not-quite-to-scale map of the
wine region. You know that little sticker on your car mirrors that says –
objects may be closer than they appear.
The map was the reverse. Wineries are farther than they appeared on the
map. The side streets and intersections are seldom marked. Clear and abundant
signage for the wineries seems to be considered tacky.
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| Wine bodegas clustered in a village setting |
Our favourite Argentinian
Malbec wine from the Salentein Winery near Tunuyan, in the Uco Valley, had
exactly one sign about a kilometer from the entrance.
In the meantime, we wandered here and there through little
hamlets looking for the wineries indicated on the map. I am slowly coming
around to the idea of GPS for future excursions. Lawrie’s form of
navigating involves tossing the map on the back seat and pointing, go that a-way.
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| Salentein Winery distances to countries |
In our helter-skelter route, we came across an area of wine
bodegas, small stores set up in a village atmosphere. Each bodega represented
one or more wineries, offering the public an opportunity to purchase
merchandise from the numerous producers that don’t want visitors.
At this point, we were still searching for the elusive Salentein Winery. With a little help
from a pleasant young woman managing one of the wine bodegas, we eventually
found the correct road, albeit from the long way around.
Salentein is a massive operation, romantically located in
the vineyard with a gorgeous backdrop of the snow-capped Andes. We asked at the
wine shop if we could taste some of the wines before purchasing.
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| Lawrie, Salentein Winery entrance |
“Certainly. Just go to the
restaurant, purchase a glass of what you would like to taste. Then return to
the wine shop and buy what you are interested in.”
Alrighty then, that’s another quirky difference between
Canadian and Argentinian wineries. Sampling different varietals and vintages is
allowed in Canada for a small cover fee, typically applied against your
purchase price.
The very pleasant young woman named Rocia (English translation
is Dew) poured us a delicious Sauvignon Blanc to share. Then we returned to the wine shop to purchase
our favourites.
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| Amazing lunch at O. Fournier Winery |
About now, it was time to head further south to our luncheon
reservation. With a little more
experience of driving the Argentinian countryside, we managed to find the main
highway to San Carlos, buzzing right past the one-and-only sign for O. Fourier
Winery.
Stopping at the next gas station, we used hand signs and Spanglish to
ask for directions, eventually finding our way into the beautiful structure
five minutes early. Yeah team!
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| Other customers are not interested in the Andes! |
Bypassing
the offer of a pre-lunch winery tour, we were escorted to our reserved table.
The
forty-seat restaurant has an outstanding view of the impressive Andes Mountains,
apparently not so entrancing to another couple who spent the entire time on their phones.
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| Lunch at O. Fournier Winery |
And our lunch at the O. Fourier Winery, wow! It was probably the best meal we have ever experienced,
six courses of intriguing flavours, beautifully presented and accompanied by
different wines. It was an outstanding way to celebrate my birthday with my
sweetie.
This blog article is becoming a bit long. We’ll finish recounting our Argentinian Adventure next week.
In the meantime,
Hasta Luego from Paradise
Cheers, Lynda & Lawrie
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