The journey from Valparaíso to Mendoza has to be one of the most spectacular road trips in the world, crossing the Andes at the foothills of Aconcagua, at 6,692 metres, the highest mountain outside the Himalayas. The road on the Chilean side has multiple hairpin bends as it slowly winds up the foothills of Aconcagua before passing under a tunnel and into Argentina. The slopes on the Argentinian side are less severe, but the views of Aconcagua are spectacular and the permanently snow capped mountain dominates the landscape as it rarely rains on the Argentinian side of the Andes thus blue skies predominate.
Mendoza is the fourth largest metropolitan area in Argentina, though the city itself is feels much smaller. It is relatively wealthy by Argentinian standards, as it is the centre of Argentina’s wine trade, which since the 1980s has grown to be one of the biggest in the world behind Spain, Italy and France.
The city itself was totally flattened in the earthquake of 1861 and nothing remains of the first 300 years of its history. The earthquake struck exactly 300 years after the city was founded, giving rise to all sorts of superstitions. The new city has been built in a classic grid system with Plaza Indpendencia at its centre. Equidistant a couple of blocks away at each corner on Plaza Independencia are four symmetrical squares, each representing elements of the city’s history.
While the city is pleasant enough, its big draw is the surrounding bodegas and wineries. The wineries are of many different sizes, some retain the traditional methods, while others are very modern, with the latest techniques and machinery to produce consistent quality wine.
Argentina and Mendoza have adopted the Malbec grape as their own and is rightly world famous for it. The region also produces other grapes, in particular Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. These all grow particularly well in Mendoza’s climate, where it rarely rains and the principal risk to the crop are the occasional hailstorms. Argentinian wine has significantly developed in sophistication over recent years, and some of the best wines today are blends, which combine rich fruity flavour of Malbec with the body of Cabernet Sauvignon. This also increases the longevity of the wine.
The Reserva wines are all stored in French oak barrels, which are expensive and only have five uses before they are disposed of. Argentina does not have a whiskey business, which will often use the old barrels back in Europe or the USA, indeed it does not really have the quality of water that industry requires. Historically Argentinian wine had a strong oaky flavour, but now with the increasing sophistication of production coupled with the relative expense of oak barrels, its wine, even the Chardonnay’s have a much lighter oaky taste.
We visited four different wineries, and the time of the year of our visit was towards the end of the harvest so many of the wine making processes were taking place. There were still grapes on the vines, which were very sweet to eat. The grapes were also being dried and crushed to extract the juice for the first parts of the wine making process.
The wineries were:
- Terrazas: a modern winery that is part of the French LVMH Group. Their wine was pretty decent but the tour did not show us the actual vineyards or contain that much explanation.
- Renacer: an independent Italian winery, which had spectacular grounds complete with a Tuscan tower. The guide was very informative on the whole process from vine to bottle and we saw many of the intermediate processes as we were in harvest season.
- Cabarena: slightly more industrial than Renacer before, but again in spectacular grounds complete with Aconcagua as a backdrop. Here we had a tasting menu for lunch complete with matched wines.
- Mendel: a small traditional winery, with much less modern technology to help process the wines. The top wine here was probably the best of all those that we sampled but generally all the wines were of a very high and consistent standard.
The wineries all had Aconcagua and the snow capped Andean Mountains in the background and with blue skies have to be one of the most picturesque wineries in the world. While we couldn’t take advantage to purchase any wine because we simply could not carry any with us, we will be looking out for these wines on our return home as the standards of Argentinian wine compare favourably with the best in the world.
Finally on our last day in Mendoza, the 17thApril has been designated World Malbec Day and to celebrate the event all the City’s fountains were dyed red. Furthermore in the bright sunshine, the fountain in Independencia Square also generated a rainbow to add to the colourful celebration.
Date: 13/04/2018 to 17/04/2018