MENDOZA (Argentina) - In Search of Malbec. 26 302 Km

In search of wine and the mountains there is only one place to go to. So we crossed the boarder from Chile to Argentina into the small town of San Martin de los Andes before heading north to Mendoza. San Martin was a nice stop off along the way where we ate chocolate, saw the "seven lakes", and ate more chocolate.

Arriving in Mendoza after an overnight bus we were excited to get into this vast area of wine growing what is claimed to be Argentina's biggest. But being a Sunday, there was very little open and instead of hitting the wine we started making plans for our few days there.

Naturally we started with a wine tour. In an area called Maipu, we visited 3 wineries and an olive oil factory. Being so close to the Hunter Valley at home, we expected wine tours to be similar - your go to 3 or 4, "taste" 4-6 wines and keep going. These tours were actually tours though with the hostess taking us through the process of wine making at each site and the barrels they used to mature their wine before we tasted 2 wines.

By the third winery we had unfortunately essentially heard the same story 3 times and we were done with the wine tours. At least for now.

The following day we decided it was time to get out of town and head to Aconcagua. Or at least to the place we can see it. Aconcagua is the highest peak in South America and the highest mountain peak outside of Asia, standing at 6961m. It lies around 110Km from Mendoza but still takes around 3.5hrs to get there by bus. The scenery on the way is fabulous though the photos to do not do it justice.

For those who want to climb Aconcagua I've heard it reported it will take 19-20 days to do the hike with less than 50% making it to the top. Whilst it's not a technical climb, there are still deaths that occur, mostly due to bad weather, high altitude, and poor preparation. When the bus dropped us at the start of the national park at 2950m, we were more than happy to just stretch our legs and do a small loop trail to get a better look at the peak.

Unfortunately, whilst it was a blue sky day, the clouds prevented us from see the full mountain.

So After a couple of hours, we got back on the bus back to Mendoza. Happy to be out of the city and still unable to believe all this was so close.

The next day was another day to get out of the city but this time for more relaxing than walking. We again jumped on the local bus and headed out to Cacheuta Springs, which lie about 46Km from Mendoza.

The naturally occurring hot springs have been turned into quite the destination for locals and those further afield. Getting off the bus, an entire town of shops and restaurants appears to have been built just because of the springs. Everybody comes out. From backpackers to families to older people having an outing. The pools are packed until lunch time when they empty out and the majority of locals head to the BBQ area (and it's a covered area of about 50x100m with 4 massive commercial Argentinian BBQs going). Then they get back in for an afternoon soak and head back. It's cool, and weird, and definitely worth going to if you ever find yourself in Mendoza.

But we had to get back. We were most looking forward to our evening. Empanada degustation with matching wines.

And it was awesome. Two girls have traveled around Argentina learning from different women about their recipes. They've then come back and made slight adjustments and found local wines to match each of their flavours. Starting at 5:30pm with 5 empanadas and wines, we hadn't imagines we'd still be sitting and drinking with the other 2 who came along until close to 11pm. Then again we hadn't thought the wine we'd tasted we'd be offered to continue drinking at the end of the empanadas.

The following day it was time for us to leave Mendoza city and head out to one of the many Vineyard regions to celebrate our 4th Wedding anniversary. Again, we thought vineyard would be out in the country, open spaces, vines galore. But that's not necessarily how each region goes.

And that's where we found ourselves in Finca Adelgesa, in the region of Chacras de Coria. This original vineyard was purchased when all property in the area was required to grow grapes on the land. Now it is 2 hectares in the middle of a town, and produces only 5000 bottles a year but has a lovely hotel in its grounds.

Eager to check out out if other vineyards existed close by we went to stretch our legs and find some lunch. And then we stumbled upon another similar vineyard but without the hotel, and who grow extra grapes at a nearby region. We had planned to just taste their wine but they asked us to do the tour as well and we felt we should.

Best. Tour. Ever.

We started with a glass of sparkling rose Malbec. We were then asked to bring our glass as we descended to the fermenting area. Unlike the very heavily touristed area of Maipu, the explanations here were fantastic. And as we went along, we would tap wines still in the process of fermenting. Here - this has been oak for 10 months, not quite ready. Let's go down to the cellar.

Along the way the the guide is laid back and shares his families story of making wine, of his quitting law to go back to university to learn about wine. The first barrel he tapped was huge - 200 odd hectoliters but as we went down in the cellar he unplugged some of these smaller barrels so we could try some more age wines.

Finally we finished with some port (out of the barrel) and headed back into the sunlight where we had empanadas and a final glass of wine.

We then returned to our hotel. Hoping the previous warm weather would return so we could go for a swim was not to eventuate. So we retreated to the bar for tapas and to try some their limited wine production