Argentina's Wine Region, Mendoza and around

I feel badly saying this since Argentina, and the trip, was so awesome but I found the wine region a little disappointing. In Mendoza's defense, the glaciers and the lake district are extremely hard acts to follow. We probably should have gone here first.

God bless Jeff but by this point I had had one day 'off' to lie by the pool at Llao Llao (the other Llao days were spent exploring the area) so I was looking forward to drinking wine, having massages and generally hanging out. However, we arrived late at night and the next day we had a 9:30 AM appointment at a local vineyard for a tour and tasting followed by a full day of the same. Only my husband would want to drink wine before breakfast. So, I also look back at Mendoza in a haze of exhaustion and with longing for another 5 days by the Llao pool.

We didn't stay in Mendoza itself, where we flew in. I've heard very mixed reviews about it. It sounds like there is some lovely colonial architecture and some nice hotels and restaurants but it's also a stereotypical Latin American city: the rich are very rich and the poor are very poor and there is quite a lot of crime if you step too far out of the good neighborhoods. We went in for a great meal at an underground (as in clandestine, not below the surface) restaurant and we were told that the driver should wait for us through our meal. And, as we drove around the city late at night, you got the feeling that there was a very unsavory underbelly. Perhaps it was the not-stopping-at-red-lights-for-fear-of-getting-carjacked whenever we drove around at night. It was a little creepy.

The region itself is spectacular. It's flat flat flat and then from out of nowhere the Andes pop up. In this region the Andes are at their highest, with Mount Aconcagua (the highest in the world outside of the Himalayas, weighing in at about 24,000 ft.) just 25 miles or so away. All the mountains visible in this area are over 20,000 ft. Suck on that, Rocky Mountains.


Cerro La Plata at sunset, which happened to
be at 11PM. La Plata was directly in front of
Aconcagua so we were never able to see it.
Notice the snowline in the middle of summer.

The grapes are irrigated with glacial run-off and grow in soil that has the highest mineral content of any wine-growing region in the world. It is also the highest wine region with an altitude of 3-4,000 ft. above sea level. And with 22,000 foot mountains looming close by, that gives you an idea of how abruptly this range cuts through the landscape.

The wineries are small compared to Napa wineries as far as production is concerned. Many don't even have bottling capabilities on site. At one winery we witnessed this outsourcing at its best: a mobile bottling truck. During harvest, they use migrant workers from Bolivia to pick the grapes. The fill huge bins full of grapes and are paid by the bin. It was very upsetting to see the bins they use and to learn how much they make. There should probably be serious discussion about boycotting Argentine wine. Especially for Jeff and me since we know what we know. It's bad, you'll have to trust me and we'll leave it at that. Ugh.


Mobile bottling truck

Only big wineries really have the horsepower to export their wines so what we can buy at our local liquor store is entirely ho-hum compared to what is available in Argentina. However, see above. Ugh.

There was a beautiful drive we read about in the guidebook that took you way up into the mountains, en route to Aconcagua, but I have a pretty paralyzing fear of heights so Jeff thought it was a bad idea. Now, I wish we had done it. I have a strange relationship with mountains: I love them but they terrify me. After the Episode on the Grossglockner Pass in Austria Jeff is pretty reticent to take me on any more of these drives (hyperventilating, hysterical crying, projectile tears). I do prefer to admire their majesty from below than to behold the view from above. We did do a little drive up into the hills and saw a thunderous river, guanacos and lovely views, including Cerro los Siete Colores.


I think I only see cinco colores but who's counting?!

And just a little geography lesson, Mendoza is the airport that the Uruguayan soccer team left from, en route to Santiago, Chile, before that big crash. The Andes do not kid around.