Mendoza looks a lot like an affluent town in the Bay area, think downtown Palo Alto. However, the reason one must visit Mendoza is not Mendoza itself, but Maipu, the wine growing region about an hour's bus ride away.
We arrived in Mendoza in the morning, after an overnight bus from Cordoba. Based on Lonely Planet's recommendation, we took a taxi to a hostel called Damajuana, but found it to be above our budget for the day, although it was a lovely place! We walked along till we found a hostel we could afford, although it was considerably less lovely (Hostel Itaka). The only saving grace was our first view of the lower Andes from our window!
We caught a local bus to Maipu and were deposited on a little dusty road in an hour. Renting bicycles is the best way to go wine tasting around here, since most of the vineyards are located along a long stretch of road, and there is no other mode of transport. We started off from the "town" of Maipu and within a few minutes had to whip out our camera to capture our first breathtaking view of the snow capped Andes.
This afternoon was one of the highlights of our trip. Bicycling along a tiny road, surrounded by gorgeous mountains, tasting wine and great food at the vineyards, it was true decadence South America style!
Mendoza is famous for its Malbec, and Tempranillo (pronounced Tempra-neesho). The wine tasting experience here was very different from Napa or Sonoma in California.
It's extremely chilled out, and not as modern or industrialized. It's what I imagine Napa might have been like in the 1970s (here I must confess that my knowledge of Napa in the '70s is based solely on the movie "Bottle Shock").
The vineyards are small, and the family that owns it usually hangs out and talks to their visitors. We lunched at the elegant Tempus Alba vineyard, an absolute paradisical venue, with gifted chefs and winemakers! We bicycled onwards and stopped at the vineyard of the Familia Di Tomasso. We drank plenty of Malbec, tasted our first Tempranillo, and bought a couple of bottles to go with dinner back at the hostel. A small note - the white wine of this region was also quite delicious, although Salta's Torrontes is more famous.
We took a day trip to see Puente del Inca and Uspallata on our second day in Mendoza (see separate post). On our third day we strolled about Mendoza itself, had a long lunch at a nice restaurant just outside our hostel, lazed about in a large park, and discovered the wonder of humita empanadas (roasted corn and cheese filled Argentininan dumplings) just before boarding our overnight bus to Neuquen.
