Mendoza Wine Tours

We arrived in Mendoza on a fantastic bus from Andesmar that I will do a full review of later.  It is a pretty city and a lot more clean than Buenos Aires.

We checked into our hotel and had some lunch and then it was off to tour some wineries.

The first winery that we visited was Dante Robino.  It was the more modern, industrial and higher capacity of the two that we visited.  The picture below is how they used to store the wine in barrels, but now that has been turned into this museum portion.

The picture above is the private tasting room of the family that owns the winery.  They keep 300 bottles of each type of wine on hand, I guess in case of a wine emergency.

The second bodega that we toured was much smaller than the first.  It is pictured above and you can see that building on the right looks a bit older than Dante Robino.  This winery is the Cavas de Don Arturo.  Notice there is no link... this is small enough to forego a website altogether.

This winery was much more personal than the first winery and the tour guide, Denise, was much more proficient at English.

At this winery they still complete a lot of the process manually.  This is where the grapes stripped of the leaves and stems before they are crushed and sent to the other building through underground pipes for further processing.

At this winery we ended up purchasing two bottles of Syrah Roble Premium and two bottles of Malbec Roble Premium.  We also bought grape oil, a byproduct they sell.  All of this for about $65 USD, which I thought was quite a deal.

After the winery tours we went to tour an olive oil and food dehydration processing plant named Pasrai.  It was pretty interesting to learn all of the rules behind making extra virgin olive oil.

We took a picture of all of the products they make from olives:  soap, lotion, body oil and other things.

We ended up having a tasting at this place also and big surprise ended up buying some cheap things there also.  We got a three pack of garlic infused olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette,  and balsamic infused olive oil, a dried tomato and olive oil paste and a green olive paste for around $25 USD.

It was an interesting day filled with a lot of tasting.  We met some nice people from the states that were on vacation and it turns out that one of them was actually in Argentina studying to be a Spanish teacher also.

Ciao,

Tim

Living Like a Porteño - 1 Week

Porteño is literally someone who lives in a port city and sometimes can be considered a derogatory in some places, but the people of Buenos Aires have embraced the title and that is what the locals are called here.

In an effort to live like a Porteño I have decided to sign up for a coupon website here.  It is advertised on the subway and the jest is that it sends you texts with the coupons to the phone number that you provide them and then you show the coupon on your phone to the staff and they give you the descuento (discount).  The really great thing about CuponStar is that it also allows you to localize your search to types of restaurants and the neighborhood that you live in.

I also am going to take a second load of laundry to the local laundry mat here.  It is a pretty simple operation, I go and drop off the laundry one day and then it is ready the next.  They wash, dry, press and fold everything for you here.  Last time I took a full hamper of clothes and it costed me $44 ARS which is a little less than $10 US.

I visited the supermarket tonight too and picked up some cheese and oranges for snacks because dinner isn't until at least 8:30 most nights here so I need something to hold me over from lunch at noon until dinner.  I also decided that the wine is super cheap and relatively delicious here, so I am going to fully embrace the wine culture...  Tonight I purchased a Ventus - Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay (2011) from the Patagonia region of Argentina.  I haven't tried it, but it is 750 m/l of middle shelf white wine for 20.79 ARS which is about $4.63 US.

Also, in another attempt to maintain a normal life here I have finally found a way to stream music on the internet.  Pandora, Rhapsody and Netflix are all not available in Argentina.  I found the website CienRadios which streams some American music.  

So, that's an update on my life...

Chau,

Tim

The Zoo...Vino, MORE vino...and Tango Lessons

On Saturday I went to the zoo and paid for a basic ticket, which was $30 ARS which is about $7.50 US.  It kept me out of the aquatic exhibit and the reptile exhibit, but gave me access to everything else.  I like seeing the animals, but it worked a little differently than in the U.S.  Here they combine Zoo and Petting Zoo kind of.  A lot of different animals were allowed to roam free in the park and the kids were allowed to feed and pet a bunch of the animals.

I also watched the Polar Bear try and get away to a place where there weren't people watching him and he couldn't because his cage was locked to keep him outside during business hours.  Most of the cages were pretty dirty inside and the water in some exhibits that would normally be crystal clear in the states was green and had dirt and things in it.

This little guy above seemed terribly uncomfortable and I am not sure, but it sort of appears that his back side is inflamed compared to the rest of them.

So, to make a sort of sad trip to the zoo a little more sad... this cute little girl was begging at the subway station.  She would just tug on your coat a little and make a super sad face a point to her cup, and then when you gave her money she would get this super big smile on her face.  Basically: She was a professional.

After the Zoo I went home and got changed for dinner and drinks with Tori, one of the girls on the trip.  I am not much of a wine drinker, but it's so cheap here and delicious I decided to have a Chardonnay with our pizza dinner.  The pizza was a little more expensive than other places, but absolutely delicious.  They don't put as much marinara sauce on the pizza here and pile on more cheese!  Well it turns out that there weren't very many options for wine by the glass, and she wanted a red wine so we both got a bottle a piece. Well, at the end of the meal there was some confusion when she asked him for both bottles "para llevar" (to go) and he thought she meant an additional bottle of wine for each of us plus re-corking what we already had.  So... moral of the story: I drank two bottles of Chardonnay last night.

This is Tori right before we started those second bottles...

We took some lessons in Tango, but it was a little difficult to hear the woman putting on the class.  I think that I was able to catch the basic movements of the dance, but I am not going to be a professional any time soon.

Chau,

Tim