July 3, 2019 Why Whine About WIne: Oeonophile Adventures Near Mendoza

This is a very small sparkling wine maker near San Juan, Argentina and a medium sized wine drinker from the USA.. The bubbles are crazy good. :( Miguel  doesn't export.. 

“Champagne makes you feel like it’s Sunday and there are better days around the corner.” –Marlene Dietrich

It would be hard to beat yesterday, as days go on this planet. But still, there is plenty left to see on our Argentine trip. Today, we are visiting winemakers with the eclipse travel group. I have to admit that I do not relish drinking wine at 10:30 AM, but I am going with the flow. They don't have spittoons here, but there is always Paul's glass! 

Our first winemaker, Miguel Mas, deals strictly with sparkling wines. He has an organic approach and makes about 8-10,000 bottles in a very small space. And it tastes great. He makes several styles of sparkling ranging from medium to very dry and he also make a Duc, which is a bit sweet for me, but if you like Duc, he's got your quack.

Miguel Mas vineyard in winter

Miguel is on the extreme left. He makes great organic sparkling wine in several forms. He showed us how they get the yeast sediment out by freezing the bottles neck

A demonstration of how to get the cork into the bottle.The cork is actually quite large. The final touches of corking are done by hand so you actually have a hope of getting it removed. 

From here, we went to another organic producer, Alto Verde. This winery produces a lot more wine than Miguel Mas, and in my opinion, not nearly as well. However, they did have very nice sparkling and dessert wines. The chardonnay and Malbec are best tried elsewhere. They do, however, highly respect organic techniques and even compost the seeds and stems for further use. So you gotta love that. 

Alto Verde Organic Winery

This sparkling rose was very tasty

Barrel room at Alto Verdo

Their most award winning wine. I thought it was "okay."

The compost pile.

We were supposed to have lunch at a third winery, but somehow (in a manner not unusual for this trip---very disorganized except for eclipse day) we arrived "on the wrong day." So that was a bust, but that was okay with me. I think two tastings a day suit me fine. 

We made our way to the city of Mendoza, where we are staying at the Sheraton, which is a very nice 5 star hotel. A far cry from Hotel Albertina in San Juan with our triple single bed room and nasty bathroom. Thank you Sheraton. Our only activity left for the day was getting familiar with the streets of Mendoza and finding dinner. We ate at a great restaurant called Josefina, which is a little bit too bright and slightly too loud, but we cannot complain about the food. 

The Park Hyatt Hotel. They have a wonderful sculpture exhibit in the lobby

I don't actually understand why anyone would purchase perfume here.

"pumpkin salad. with house made ricotta." Yum

Carrot ravoli. Who knew?

We look forward to seeing more of Mendoza tomorrow.

       “As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” 

― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Paul's Ponderings:  A bit of a slower day, but a lot less time on a bus!   What a bonus.   After stopping at a couple of wineries coming in from San Juan, we were in Mendoza, the center of all things Malbec (and more).   Seems like a very nice town, which is also very manageable on foot.   I suspect it's a bit busy in the warm weather, but we managed it fine;  it's not that cold here, just cool at the moment.    The dinner at Josefina was excellent and we've had a new grape a couple of times here "Bonarda".   It's a bit light, like a nice Pinot Noir on the tongue, with some earthiness underpinning it.    As noted, the space for the restaurant is nice, but it is a bit loud....not horrible though...and brightly lit.    Tomorrow we will spend the day in town and see more about what's up with Mendoza.