April 23rd
Took my time this morning to get ready and headed out early in the afternoon. At about 2:00pm I stopped in to check out some tours. After visiting the first place there seems to only be certain tours available in the entire town. I went to the second tour place and they mentioned the same tours at the same price. I asked if the wine tour was available this afternoon. She made a call and was able to get me in on the 2:30pm tour; it was now 2:15pm. We finished all the paperwork and she pointed to the place where the van was parked … this was the starting point. It was a short notice, but I had all my camera gear and that was all that mattered. LOL
After driving around for half an hour and picking up all the guests, we made our way to the first winery, Bodega Weinert. This winery was built in the 1800’s and they still make most of their wine in oak barrels. The tour group were divided into two groups, the 12 Spanish speaking people in one group and me in the English group … just me. HaHaHa
During the tour the guide showed me the old oak vats that they have been using and one that was amazing in design. I love seeing the bottles stacked with dust and webs, and she showed me where the owners keep the bottles of wine that they open from time to time … on special occasions.
After the quick tour we had a wine tasting with two different bottles. The first bottle was CarraScal, a cabernet sauvignon. This wine was okay, but I found it was not anywhere near being my favourite.
The next bottle we tried was Weinert 2006, this wine was superb! What a lovely flavour and very smooth. She observed how much I was enjoying it, and being the only one in my group, she poured me a second glass. I love this place!!!! LOL
We left the old winery, Bodega Weinert, and went to the next winery (Vistandes), which was a much newer and modern winery.
Again, I had a private one on one tour of the modern facility which did not last long and we went up to the tasting room.
The first sample was Vistandes, Malbec Rose. This light wine, which is excellent with deserts, was very good. It was most definitely the best Rose I have ever tried.
The second bottle of wine was a Cabernet Sauvignon, and this wine was absolutely awful to my taste. It tasted like a dirty ashtray (not that I have eaten from a dirty ashtray) LOL. It was so bad that it left that taste in my mouth even after trying the third bottle of wine.
The third bottle was Gradum Vistandes Malbec 2015. This was not bad, but certainly I didn’t think it was as good as the Weinert 2006 bottle.
I found that we were being rushed from place to place with no pride in giving the tours. It seemed like it was okay, here is our winery now taste a little and that is where you can buy it. The Chile tour was much nicer and personable than the tour at these two wineries.
We then went to PaSrai, an olive tree plantation and olive oil factory.
This was more interesting than I expected and again it was just me in a private tour … feeling lucky.
When we reached the final room, she took out some oil and put some on my arm and a cream on my other arm … it made my skin so nice and smooth. They indicated it was for Tightening Body Emulsion oil and cream. Like I know what that means. LOL
At the end of the tour, she put out different types of bread samples and some bread samples with a spread.
She then poured different samples of olive oil on each bread sample plate. Meaning that on the first plate of sample bread, she poured traditional olive oil.
On the second plate it was Lemon flavoured Olive Oil.
On the third plate it was Ajo(garlic).
The next plate had a spread and it was pared with Oregano flavoured Olive Oil.
The next one was my favourite; it was dried tomatoes on bread with Albahaca (Basil) Flavored Olive Oil.
The next plate was a spread on the bread samples, but no oil put on the bread. The oil was placed beside the bread samples, Picante (Hot Spicy) Flavored Olive Oil. I did not get a chance to try this oil.
The last plate she just said to help ourselves, there were no oils beside it. I tried a couple, but dug into the chocolate covered raisins and the other raisins beside it. The bus guide reached in and grabbed a whole handful … well, I had to do the same, and after all, it has been months since I have had some chocolate. LOL I must say it was very good.
After the olive guide gave all of us the samples, she went behind the counter and was selling different bottles to the group. We were left to fend for ourselves, so … I got some more chocolate coated raisins. HaHaHa.
We left the Olive Oil factory and I thought we were done … our last stop was at the Parroquia Nuestra Senora de la Carrodilla. This was a Church that is very important in the area for farmers and specifically the grape growing farms.
There are wall statues outside of the Church that tell the story of the earlier years, including one wall statue that looks like it was cracked into two pieces. The crack actually represents the earthquake of 1861 that devastated Mendoza region and left so many people homeless.
The tour ended and we made our way back to town. I was getting nauseous with the jerking of the driving and when the van stopped near one of the parks, I got out and walked back to the main street. I stopped at a tour place that I had visited earlier today to book a tour for tomorrow that goes up to the highlands beside the Chile border. The guide was filling out the papers and I asked him which day was better weather wise. It turned out the Wednesday was better than Tuesday. He started to fill in the form and he put down the 25th. This date sounded familiar to me and I checked my schedule to find out that my flight leaves on the 25th! Wow! I almost blew that one. He checked around to try and find me that tour for Tuesday, but was not in the cards. I thanked him and went on my way.
A friend, who has lived in South America for some time had told me that before you can leave Argentina you must not want to eat any more meat or drink any more wine. Well, I guess I can leave Argentina now because I just ate a buffet which was full of meat barbequed and after the wine tour I am done with wine for a few days. I have had my fill of both. LOL