Last nite we finished off a fantastic bottle of Rutini - 2006 Malbec / Cabernet. Really great!!!
Then we headed out to a milonga - i have tried milongas in so many cities and rommel wanted to check it out and so did ryan - so we did! Ana and Luis are the main organizers so we took a cab and headed to their Wednesday night milonga at Soul Cafe! Cute place.
http://www.anayluistango.com.ar
We went and had a few dances. Ana and Luis were really sweet. The quality of dancing was quite mixed. I had an interesting experience from 1 lady who was seated at the table next to ours. While rommel and i were dancing i happened to turn to look in her direction (not sure why!) and she was mouthing to me, moving her hands and I looked behind me and said something like "que?" I gradually moved closer to her where she advised me to pull my dress out of my ass and to pay attention to that! I returned to dancing with rommel and we couldn't stop laughing. She really actually said, tu traje esta en tu culo y cuidar eso.... "why thank you! what a pal." (this was my thought!) She later went up to rommel and asked him for our entry "tickets" so that she could win the raffle!! Glad we didn't give those up because we actually won a bottle of wine!!! Pared Sur - don't have any info on this wine yet!
here's rommel with ana at this milonga... Ernesto Balmaceda and Stella Baez were here for workshops and a festive sunday milonga. It was nice to see them and we formally introduced ourselves to them. We'll see them again in buenos aires milongas too!
TODAY!!! what a long fantastic day! We started out "early" - 9am. Rommel had negotiated with a taxi driver to take us to some bodegas in Lujan de Cuyo area of Mendoza for a great price - 280pesos the whole day and included lunch for him. Ryan had researched HEAVILY different wineries that he wanted to visit - based on the ratings from wine spectator and other websites. So he had a list of places and we called to make reservations for our visit with them. (This was advised for this region as they would not let us just drop in.)
Our day was to look like this:
Carmelo Patti
Archaval Ferrer
Ruca Malen (lunch with wine pairings)
Alta Vista
A truly full day - but beautiful warm weather.
We started with a slow drive with our older driver jose luis to Carmelo Patti - which we couldn't find!!!! Because as jose luis kept indicating - "it's hard to find 'cuz there's no signage" - "no tiene cartel". Katie and Ryan laughed as they heard this over and over again - they have added this to their spanish phraseology!
here's rommel and our driver asking for directions to Carmelo Patti - remember - "no tiene cartel"!!!!
But they did ask for directions!!!!!
So we were very impressed with Carmelo Patti even before we arrived. When rommel called yesterday to make the reservations for our visit to his bodega HE answered the phone. When we told him we wanted to visit around 10am he said - what? the wine is still cold - you should come at 11:30am! rommel convinced him that we needed to be their earlier. We found his place on time and he welcomed us to his small bodega personally. He was amazing to listen to - his care and mission are on par with a professional business. Educating people and knowing that his wine will be better with age. He puts the date of the harvest on the bottle and the date of the bottling and then how many bottles were bottled for that production. VERY Impressive. He has always been in the winery business and he started his own in 1998. We all bought a bottle from him!!!
He explained to us about storage of the wine and also about taking off the foil for storage and checking the cork. He doesn't do any advertising and most of his clientele is by word of mouth. He was so personable and really interesting.
We then went Archaval Ferrer. A VERY beautiful bodega - very high end. A fantastic tour and clear presentation from our guide Veronica. We had a very unique wine from malbec grapes but a dolce wine. Very interesting.. and of course we had others....
This is the view from the "front" porch of Archaval Ferrer. Really breathtaking and beautiful.
Then we went for lunch - we were pretty hungry and feeling, not really drunk, but pokey! So we had made reservations at Ruca Malen for lunch with pairings of wine. They made me some veggies while the 5 courses for everyone else consisted of cheese and beef, etc. Really interesting to try these wines - which were not as good in my mind as the other wines we had tried up to that point. Although we had a nice meal and not expensive and the view was exquisite. We were giggly afterwards and enjoyed hanging out on their porch and their grass. Really fantastic afternoon.
check out all these glasses!!!
and then our post food and wine digestion!
We all had coffees and more water as we gradually went from sitting on those lovely chairs on the porch to lounging in the grass or on the porch!!!!! There was another couple on the porch with us laughing and giggly with understanding. She said that even after 4 cups of coffee she was still drunk!!!!
It was such a beautiful view and the sun was bright and warm. I can't get over how enjoyable this was. We left after about 3 hours!!!! We arrived around 1:30pm and headed to Alta Vista at about 4:30pm . We had a reservation with Alta Vista for 3pm !!! We were a couple of hours late!!! And typically argentine they said "what reservation?" Anyway!!!
At alta vista we merely had time for a tasting. They had beautiful lavendar plants and little guinea pigs running around all over the place! It was a beautiful place. Very modern.
We stumbled home - tired and full of food and wine!!! Tomorrow we leave in the evening for buenos aires. Ryan will be leaving for the US on saturday night. Katie will be hanging for another couple of days with us.
We all bought wine.
I have to say i have been really impressed with how many people speak english here in mendoza - obviously with all the tourism that they get most of those people were at the bodegas or at the tourism places or the chauffeur from the sheraton. I was not impressed with how difficult it seemed to get organized. You come here knowing that you want to go to the bodegas - and every one just sends you to travel agencies. But if you want to visit specific ones you have to find the travel agencies that cater to that bodega on that day. AS the bodega visits change depending on the day... people were friendly once you engaged them in conversation or some service. The city is small enough to wander around. The main plaza - independencia - is really nice with a beautiful fountain.
Maybe i need to bring some students here next year as part of a package - it might be fun....
so tomorrow we will have to find something to do before we sit on the bus for 12 hours again!
Great day though!
Then we headed out to a milonga - i have tried milongas in so many cities and rommel wanted to check it out and so did ryan - so we did! Ana and Luis are the main organizers so we took a cab and headed to their Wednesday night milonga at Soul Cafe! Cute place.
http://www.anayluistango.com.ar
We went and had a few dances. Ana and Luis were really sweet. The quality of dancing was quite mixed. I had an interesting experience from 1 lady who was seated at the table next to ours. While rommel and i were dancing i happened to turn to look in her direction (not sure why!) and she was mouthing to me, moving her hands and I looked behind me and said something like "que?" I gradually moved closer to her where she advised me to pull my dress out of my ass and to pay attention to that! I returned to dancing with rommel and we couldn't stop laughing. She really actually said, tu traje esta en tu culo y cuidar eso.... "why thank you! what a pal." (this was my thought!) She later went up to rommel and asked him for our entry "tickets" so that she could win the raffle!! Glad we didn't give those up because we actually won a bottle of wine!!! Pared Sur - don't have any info on this wine yet!
here's rommel with ana at this milonga... Ernesto Balmaceda and Stella Baez were here for workshops and a festive sunday milonga. It was nice to see them and we formally introduced ourselves to them. We'll see them again in buenos aires milongas too!TODAY!!! what a long fantastic day! We started out "early" - 9am. Rommel had negotiated with a taxi driver to take us to some bodegas in Lujan de Cuyo area of Mendoza for a great price - 280pesos the whole day and included lunch for him. Ryan had researched HEAVILY different wineries that he wanted to visit - based on the ratings from wine spectator and other websites. So he had a list of places and we called to make reservations for our visit with them. (This was advised for this region as they would not let us just drop in.)
Our day was to look like this:
Carmelo Patti
Archaval Ferrer
Ruca Malen (lunch with wine pairings)
Alta Vista
A truly full day - but beautiful warm weather.
We started with a slow drive with our older driver jose luis to Carmelo Patti - which we couldn't find!!!! Because as jose luis kept indicating - "it's hard to find 'cuz there's no signage" - "no tiene cartel". Katie and Ryan laughed as they heard this over and over again - they have added this to their spanish phraseology!
here's rommel and our driver asking for directions to Carmelo Patti - remember - "no tiene cartel"!!!!But they did ask for directions!!!!!
So we were very impressed with Carmelo Patti even before we arrived. When rommel called yesterday to make the reservations for our visit to his bodega HE answered the phone. When we told him we wanted to visit around 10am he said - what? the wine is still cold - you should come at 11:30am! rommel convinced him that we needed to be their earlier. We found his place on time and he welcomed us to his small bodega personally. He was amazing to listen to - his care and mission are on par with a professional business. Educating people and knowing that his wine will be better with age. He puts the date of the harvest on the bottle and the date of the bottling and then how many bottles were bottled for that production. VERY Impressive. He has always been in the winery business and he started his own in 1998. We all bought a bottle from him!!!
He explained to us about storage of the wine and also about taking off the foil for storage and checking the cork. He doesn't do any advertising and most of his clientele is by word of mouth. He was so personable and really interesting.
We then went Archaval Ferrer. A VERY beautiful bodega - very high end. A fantastic tour and clear presentation from our guide Veronica. We had a very unique wine from malbec grapes but a dolce wine. Very interesting.. and of course we had others....
This is the view from the "front" porch of Archaval Ferrer. Really breathtaking and beautiful.Then we went for lunch - we were pretty hungry and feeling, not really drunk, but pokey! So we had made reservations at Ruca Malen for lunch with pairings of wine. They made me some veggies while the 5 courses for everyone else consisted of cheese and beef, etc. Really interesting to try these wines - which were not as good in my mind as the other wines we had tried up to that point. Although we had a nice meal and not expensive and the view was exquisite. We were giggly afterwards and enjoyed hanging out on their porch and their grass. Really fantastic afternoon.
check out all these glasses!!!and then our post food and wine digestion!
We all had coffees and more water as we gradually went from sitting on those lovely chairs on the porch to lounging in the grass or on the porch!!!!! There was another couple on the porch with us laughing and giggly with understanding. She said that even after 4 cups of coffee she was still drunk!!!!
It was such a beautiful view and the sun was bright and warm. I can't get over how enjoyable this was. We left after about 3 hours!!!! We arrived around 1:30pm and headed to Alta Vista at about 4:30pm . We had a reservation with Alta Vista for 3pm !!! We were a couple of hours late!!! And typically argentine they said "what reservation?" Anyway!!!At alta vista we merely had time for a tasting. They had beautiful lavendar plants and little guinea pigs running around all over the place! It was a beautiful place. Very modern.
We stumbled home - tired and full of food and wine!!! Tomorrow we leave in the evening for buenos aires. Ryan will be leaving for the US on saturday night. Katie will be hanging for another couple of days with us. We all bought wine.
I have to say i have been really impressed with how many people speak english here in mendoza - obviously with all the tourism that they get most of those people were at the bodegas or at the tourism places or the chauffeur from the sheraton. I was not impressed with how difficult it seemed to get organized. You come here knowing that you want to go to the bodegas - and every one just sends you to travel agencies. But if you want to visit specific ones you have to find the travel agencies that cater to that bodega on that day. AS the bodega visits change depending on the day... people were friendly once you engaged them in conversation or some service. The city is small enough to wander around. The main plaza - independencia - is really nice with a beautiful fountain.
Maybe i need to bring some students here next year as part of a package - it might be fun....
so tomorrow we will have to find something to do before we sit on the bus for 12 hours again!
Great day though!
