Argentine Wine Country!

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After settling in at Huar Hostel, the place in Maipu, we headed out for Acacia´s first wine tasting! We were advised to go to Trapiche, a large industrialized winery but that was open later and had cheap tastings. However, as were driving around trying to find this place, we saw a couple of dudes riding bikes out of the Trapiche parking lot, one of them being a tall Dutch guy. Pieter! The guy I had a beer with on top of the volcano. He and his friend from San Francisco were almost through day´s worth of wine and bike touring, so they were looking a bit flush. We decided to meet them at a winery a couple kilometers away that they were heading to. Seemed easy enough, right? Wrong! Acacia couldn´t tell if the map the bike tour agency had given Pieter and subsequently passed on to us was right side up or upside down, or even why the main road in town didn´t appear to exist on the map. After following behind the bikers for the first few turns to get our bearings I revved Al´s impressive 4 cylinder engine and we arrived at Tempus Alba in time for us both to put on some deoderant and change our shirts before Pieter got there. There were some lovely signs making for a quick self guided tour, and a pretty big tank room and cellar for barrel aging the wines that we got to check out. Then the tasting! Between the 4 of us, we bought enough tastings to cover their entire line up of wines except for the super premium ones. Acacia and I both liked the Tempranillo the best, and liked the Malbec, which is the wine known for the region, the least. Too fruity, not enough pepper. We chatted for a bit with Pieter and his San Francisco friend, and then they had to leave to catch the bus back to Mendoza.

Tank Room

Tempus Alba Grapes

Is that a beer garden on the wine map? Needless to say, we checked out the beer garden before heading back to the hostel.

Writing letters at the beer garden

Back at the hostel, Jeff was planning a huge meal for the whole family and us. The family at the hostel was a huge friendly family of 5 children, more grandchildren, and they were big wine and meat consumers. For dinner, they got out two giant kitchen tables and placed them end to end to seat 14 people. It was a loud family dinner, and reminded me a lot of reunions at the Vivio´s house, it was pretty great. And, since we were Jeff´s friends, we were the guests of honor. There was some vegetarian pizza for Acacia, and Pedro, the man of the house caught me drinking terrible Chilean bulk wine, told me it was for travelling but that at his house I had to drink his better wine. Well I don´t mind if I do. Dinner was roasted chicken with potatoes, carrots, and some kind of other root vegetable. And no shortage of food! Like a chicken per person with an equal amount of the veggies. About half way through dinner, Pedro dumped Acacia´s wine back into the decanter and busted out a bottle of some reserve wine which he offered pretty much exclusively to the guests of honor. It was a great night.

Except for the actual sleeping part :( I woke up around 4:00am with food poisoning. Everyone´s best guess was that it was from the chicken skins. I got sick every 30 minutes from 4 to about 9. Then it ceased for a while and I thought I could handle bread. No dice. This was rather unfortunate because Acacia and I were planning on getting up early and doing the wine and bike tour that seemed to be all the rage in Maipu. However at about 10am that morning I couldn´t think of anything worse than a wine and bike tour. We spent  most of the day blogging and hanging out at the hostel. Pedro and his wife took super good care of me, feeding me crackers and tea. And this wasn´t just tea, it was Boldo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldo) and coca tea with a scoop of honey and some butter. Best tea I´ve ever had? I made it out once during the day to send some mail with Acacia. Acacia went for a run at one point while I took a nap. Other than that, pretty mellow day. We had about a 5 hour Two and a Half Men marrathon which was actually really good because I´d been feeling deprived. By the end of the night I had managed to hold down some Sprite with Fernet Blanc (a liquor that´s good for stomach issues) (I know you said no alcohol Priscilla, but you know John!), a few crackers, and a half a banana, so things were looking up.

Huar Hostel with Pedro and his Wife

The next morning I was good to go. Had a full breakfast with coffee and everything. There was even Dulce de Leche involved. So, today was bike day! Pieter had told us about a wine museum where your entrance fee could be used towards the purchase of a wine bottle, and since it closed early that was our first stop. After I navigated us to the museum, we walked in and had to pay 5 pesos, not the 50 Pieter had said. First indication we were at the wrong place. We got a guided tour of the place which ended up being a historic house. And didn`'t have any wine. But it dad have the coolest toilets I have ever seen. After that we biked through town, grabbed some things at the hostel, and headed towards the wineries. Our first stop was  actually an olive oilery? Or whatever you call a place that makes olive oil. In this case the name was Maguay. One of the owners gave us the tour which was nice because he knew a lot more about the production of the olive oil than some of the winery tour guides did. The tour started with a series of 5 bottles of olive oil all with a different variety of olive or unique blend of the three types of olives they were growing. Acacia´s eyes really lit up when the owner asked `would you like to sample the olives that were used to produce the different oils?` Why yes, yes we would. We had a lot of questions about the olive production and oil production process since it is Acacia´s new addiction and then got taken out to the orchard where we learned that most of the laborers who pick the olives come from Bolivia or northern Argentina. Also raw olives are terribly bitter and exceptionally astringent. Don´t eat one before embarking on a day of wine tasting because it kind fries your palate. 

The first winery we went to was a USDA certified organic winery called Cecchin. The tour started in the vineyard where the vines are left to grow without much human influence, aside from the harvest and one pruning after the harvest. To manage pests the vineyard was bordered by olive trees and they didn`'t do any weeding. Then we went into the winery and saw the tanks, which we giant cement pools. The tour guide explained all of the pressed wine is sold to the bulk market, which ends up in the tasty box wine we have been drinking throughout the trip. The winery did almost no barrel aging, so in our opinions, the wine wasn´t the most impressive. There were a few unique varietals from Italy and a sulfate free malbec, which made them especially unique. 

As we were leaving the tour guide told us not  to worry about the police who had been hanging around the winery while we (the only ones) were there because they like to check up on tourists. She also ensured us that the area wasn`'t dangerous at all and suggested we take the back way to the main road through the vineyard. Solid suggestion, except at the back of the vineyard the police were waiting. We waved as we road past, turned onto the highway, and realized we were being trailed. We focussed on riding soberly and eventually pulled over to look at the map to figure out where we were going. While we were stopped one of the officers came to talk to us. She gave us directions to our next stop (which was nice, but the map certainly would have sufficed) and told us she would continue following us. At this point John was sure we were being baited. They would lead us to all of the wineries throughout the day and after we spent all of our money, arrest of for BUI. The last intersection before the winery John, the leader, made a wrong turn, so the police honked and turned on their siren to redirect us. So much for appearing sober (I am totally joking, we were quite sober at this point still, but very anxious about what the police perceived). 

·intermission (you know, half-time in a play, right, C?) I had to take a benadryl with a beer (hah). So John's going solo

Biking through town

Cecchin Grapes

The cops left us at Floria, the next winery on our tour. This one was known for sweet wines, so, like the organic wine place, I was a bit skepticle. The tour was about the same as the last one, but then the lady explained how they cook down the juice to concentrate the sugars and add back into some of the finished wines as well as distilling some of the juice into grappa to add back into the wines to increase the alcohol concentration. So it was one of the more educational tours I´ve been on. And the wines, actually pretty good! But in my completely uneducated opinion, not for the same reasons that make wine good. They mostly tasted like they should be poured over ice cream. Some of them were really caramelly, so they were really good to sip after a meal, but certainly not something you could have glasses of. Leaving that winery we seemed to be clear of police, so we booked it to the next winery, Carinae. But it was either hard to find, or we were feeling buzzed because we rode past it three times in two different directions before noticing a wine tour bus pulling into the winery´s drive way. This was definitely the best wine of the day! We opted out of the tour for this one, but the guy pouring wine was studying wine production himself, so was very knowledgeable about the wines and actually probably provided more information about the wine culture and styles in the region than either of the previous ones. At the end of the tasting he hooked it up with a glass of one of their reserve wines for free and then reassured us about the police following us, saying that they follow all the bike tourists to protect them from cars and locals (apparently Maipu citizens don´t like the wine and bike tours because of traffic). The last winery we hit up was some family bodega. It was also the oldest one around which made it special, possibly the oldest winery in the Americas? I dunno if I believe that one, but basically, its old. Which apparently also means that all those old people working there closed up shop early at 4:30. Gettin kicked out as we were pulling in were a couple other bikers, one of them being Gal, one of the Israelis we met on the Paso del Viento trail and then again in Coyhaique and a friend of his. Nice to know we were´t the only slow travelers. I am quite happy with our speed, and if anything would like to go slower. Anyway, the four of us all tried the next closest winery which was also closed. No more wineries on the way back to return the bikes with only 25 minutes to get back and about 7km of uphill biking, which was unfortunate for two reasons. First, it didn´t really feel like downhill on the way there, and second there was no more wine to drink AND we hadn´t had dinner yet. Much to our enjoyment, though, Tierra Huarpe Rental Bikes poured us 2 huge glasses of shitty cold red wine and gave us some trailmix snacks upon returning! I´d highly reccommend those guys. They were also selling some artesan products and Acacia was stoked on one of the backpacks which ended up having too high of a price tag and clearly was´t being sold by the people who produced it, so no dice. 

After heading back to the hostel I decided my stomach was still a bit tender so wanted tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner. Finding an open store for tomato soup ingredients was difficult so I ended up getting tomato paste at the only open kiosk, and Acacia was highly skepticle I´d be able to produce a decent soup. We both had a bowl and grilled cheese while watching some X-Men First Class in Spanish (optimistically hoping it would improve my Spanish) and blogging for a bit. A few Americans were also staying at the hostel so we chatted with them for a bit and I had a relatively early night.