Hello lovely people: the sixth of my occasional blogs from Chile – Argentina – Chile

Mendoza

We survive our 14 hour overnight bus journey from Buenos Aires to Mendoza city in remarkably good shape. We head immediately to our hotel a few kilometres south of the city chosen for the convenience of collecting the hire car and then heading south into serious wine country in a couple of days.

Too early to access our rooms we drop our luggage and walk to a nearby small retail area, breakfast at leisure and then check in, shower, change and taxi to the city centre. Except we don’t quite make it, with a loud bang our taxi just….expires. We abandon the embarrassed driver and set off on foot. A happy outcome as we enter the main part of the city through a beautiful garden square which manifests its Spanish heritage in the pavement tiles and bench.

All the streets are tree lined and we see for the first time something repeated in every town and village we visit throughout the province: an irrigation system of trenches and sluice gates which provide and regulate water to all the trees, parks and gardens. It’s highly impressive, occasionally very decorative, and a fantastically engineered use of Andes’ snow melt and river water: the region has one of the lowest annual rainfalls on the planet but our first sight of the city, repeated through much of the areas we visit, is that it is so green one would never believe that we are technically in a desert!

Walking the deserted streets – it is hot, and siesta time for sensible locals – it is apparent from the large houses, varied architecture and gardens that the city is wealthy and we spot businesses that clearly link it to the wine industry. We walk north to Parque San Martín. Revived by a beer we stroll its tree lined paths, admiring the fountain and lake. An evening walk back into the centre leads us to an excellent Pisco Sour in a Peruvian restaurant and dinner on the terrace of a parilla, pretty much empty as we arrive at 8:30 and absolutely heaving as we leave a couple of hours later, full of asado (again!). One interesting conversation during the course of dinner between Roberto and the parilla owner is that his meat bill had increased by 5% the previous week and he is expecting a similar increase next week; he has not yet passed on the increase to his customers but does not know how long he will sustain that. Managing any business must be really difficult in these inflationary times, as much as one’s personal budget. That said, nowhere we have been has there been any shortage of people out, eating and drinking so to us the problems seem well hidden.

The next day is our first (of four) winery lunches in the Mendoza region, but before that Roberto and Andy collect the hire car. They return to the hotel a little perturbed: it is a three day old, bright red Fiat Cronos with 174 delivery kilometres on the clock and no number plates. We were expecting something more worn and are not sure how driving with no number plates will pan out…..*

The winery, Clos de Chacras, is a delight. On the edge of the town, Chacras de Coria, it is a rosy pink, Spanish style building set in manicured lawns and vineyards. Lunch is served on a deck overlooking a carp pond and is a delicious six course tasting menu with wine pairings. No tour of the winery today, but a walk through the vines (netted, which I have not seen before) back into town.

The following day we relocate to Lujan de Cuyo, our base for the next five days, exploring the mountains and vineyards. We start in earnest the following morning, Aconcagua, the Andes’ highest mountain (although not high enough to make the world’s top 100, the summit is 6,961m) is visible from our balcony and we head there today. A wondrous drive through a geography lesson. The weather is glorious, the skies blue and the vistas huge. Our first stop is Puente del Inca, colorful rock which does not seem real, on an old Inca trading route. Then into Parque Provincial Aconcagua and a three hour circular hike initially taking us towards the snow capped mountain, walking steadily towards the glacier. The car park is at approx 2,800m and we climb to about 3,200m – not a huge change but we can all feel we are breathing more heavily than usual on the walk. Good acclimatization and a spectacular day.

The next three days are visits to three very different and all extremely lovely winerys, all serving outstanding food: Zuccardi, then Azul, then Hacienda del Plata. Zuccardi and Azul require scenic drives south of Luján de Cuyo with magnificent views; Hacienda del Plata is in the town and we walk there and back. It would take me pages to recount each of our visits so I shall rely on captioning the photographs (there are many!). As to the wines: mostly Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. The very occasional Chardonnay but with all the meat we eat we mostly drink red. Not much fizz, which is a shame for Alison M who does not drink still wine, but is well used to watching the three of us doing so!

Mendoza, the city and the province, has been a fabulous stay. Extremely well fed and full of wine we ready ourselves for our road trip proper, north….but that is for another blog!

*the car: on our trip to Puente del Inca we drive through a number of police and customs check points. We are not at all clear what the former are looking for as we are waved through; customs are mostly checking trucks but it seems there is a prohibition on moving fruit across provincial and national borders – we are asked if we are carrying fruit on one occasion. No-one raises the absence of number plates. We are however persuaded to pull over as a result of repeated gesticulations from a family who pull in in front of us; the mother runs back to tell us our number plates have fallen off. Roberto explains. She is surprised as she cautions the police can be very difficult about this. We’ll see! We thank her for her concern – of course Roberto does all the explaining – and with parting good wishes on both sides she goes back to her car to regale her family with the three English and one Argentinian traveling in a hire car without number plates because the man renting them the car has assured them it is fine.

Until next time, adios amigos
ALISON