Bikes and Wines

Mendoza is an adventure paradise - tour companies offering everything from paragliding to rock climbing. Its also at the heart of Argentina´s wine region with both small and large bodegas producing a staggering array of vino. Jonny and I aren´t really the paragliding type, and white water rafting produces welts on one of us so instead we did what Jon enjoys - spent a day sampling some of the finest wine at bargain prices. We chose not to do a stuffy bus tour of the wineries and instead rented bikes from a company that specializes in biking wine tours and who´s employees though Jon had an uncanny reseblance to Wolverine (check out his sideburns).

We were picked up from our hostel (late again) and shuttled out to the Maipu vine region, just south of the city. There we were given a map, two bottles of water, a voucher for lunch and our choice of 1/2 a dozen bright yellow bicycles. We requested helmets and after some rummaging we were given a bright yellow shell for Jon and a fushia pink for me.

Our first stop (a mere 600m down the road) was the large Rural winery, which produces 6000 bottles an hour. We got a very excellent tour in Spanish, which left us with no understanding of how the winery worked but did include two free tastings in the very tastefully decorated winery lobby. Starting to get into the swing of things, we hoped back on our bikes and headed to tast liquors and chocolates. Sadly, the chocolate wasn´t very good, but our chocolate liquor shots made up for it. Sometime during the tasting Jon´s bike got switched for another company bike, complete with flat tire. We got a nice tour of the liquor making process while we waited for our replacement tire to arrive.

After lunch we hit a much smaller winery, Vino El Cerno, where we got a tour in English, a lesson on how to taste wine and a chance to stand in an old wine vault. Then it was off to another small winery, where we got three tastings (which I actually enjoyed). More than enough wine for me!

I´m no more of a wine expert than when we started out, but the trip was enjoyable and a great break from the hussel and bustel of the city.

Jonny in the celler with some aging wine.
Showing off our very nice helmets.
Vines in front of the Andes - a pretty nice spot for biking!