This week was really very uneventful and maybe sort of disappointing but mostly because I did have really high expectations from both Mendoza’s wine and Cordoba, Argentina’s second biggest city and its educational and cultural centre.
I was very excited about tasting all these wines in Mendoza, the heart of Argentine wine industry. We had 3 options: one to take one of many regular tours through wineries for some $40-50, a posh one that would require splashing out upwards from $160 or just go to one subregion Maipu, rent a bicycle and pop in to random wineries that accept the visits. Considering lack of regular pay checks we went for a regular tour just to see how it goes and decide on the other options later. The tour started wrong from the beginning … we spent 1 hour in the tour bus collecting people from various hotels and hostels around Mendoza. Then it got worse; we went to Navarro Corres, a winery owned by Diagio (one of the biggest if not the biggest alcohol company in the word) who after absolutely boring tour of the production process served us with their probably worst and cheapest wines. Things got slightly better with a medium-size boutique winery Vistandes, that only produces for export and own consumption at the bodega. The tour was more interesting and passionate. We got to taste their Torrontes, Argentine white grape. It was not bad really but sort of strange selection of 2008 for tasting after explaining to us that the young wine that did not age in the oak barrels is best within 2-3 years… The last winery we visited was a small winery Don Arturo where the tour was fun, tasting was ‘richer’ though the wine themselves were rather non-descript; the flagship wine of this winery were 2003 vintages that the owner aged for his daughter’s wedding in 2007, those of course we did not taste! All the wine tastings we did was before lunch; somehow it did not settle with me to drink wine that early after the meagre breakfast! The best thing of the wine tour was the lunch with a humongous picada (selection of cold cuts, cheeses, salads, fresh, grilled, marinated vegetables) that was served with the non-branded house Syrah, that turned out to be the best wine we had that day; or maybe drinking wine at not before lunch is just better altogetherJ
So my take on wine tasting in Mendoza is best to skip it. Just buy yourselves a good bottle in the shop. Most of the stores sell half bottles. It would make much better wine tasting. Mendoza itself is good to visit if you would like to do nothing but wonder the streets and hide from streets on the plazas or in the park; or alternatively if you a football fun in Argentina during the summer. Argentine league does not play so the teams play friendly summery tournaments like Copa de Mendoza. We got to see San Martin beat San Lorenzo 3:2. Sure it was not a big game like Boca v Riverplate who played there after we left (disappointing too) but it was good fun. So football not wine turned out to be the highlight of our day in Mendoza!
Disappointment 2: Cordoba
Cordoba was very hot, very very hot and there was nowhere to hide from the afternoon heat because its supposedly interesting, artsy museums did not open until 5pm or one even after 8pm! So we just wondered the streets full of cheap shops, not even a decent park or a square with benches under the trees! My highlight of Cordoba was a conversation with the owner of the small grocery shop where we were buying our nibbles for the bus to Rosario. He knew Wajda, Polanski, Kieslowski movies and what was even more surprising Zbigniew Cybulski, our polish equivalent of James Dean. It does not happen very often that the shopkeeper on the other side of the world knows so much about small polish contribution to the world’s cinema! Oh, I also liked a very cheerful hippy band that played on the streets: Manana me chanto.
I did not expect much of Rosario. I actually did not even want to go there. It was just convenient place to break the journey from Cordoba to Buenos Aires and it is at the end the birth place of Argentine flag, Che Guevara and of course Lionel Messi (for readers oblivious to football he is the best player these days!). Yet we had really good time there. It was still very hot, if not hotter than Cordoba but somehow seemed more pleasant and not as busy. Even the shops were nicer! Sitting in the café on the river Parana made a really good pass time. We did not get tickets to go on the boat to the river islands because the day boats were full but even walk through the park on the river was very pleasant! So do not get out of your way to get to Rosario but if you do enjoy it but if you want to sleep at night avoid hostel La Mansion de Nomada, decent place in good location but a hard-core party place with the barbeque on the rooftop starting at about midnight.
Next week we are going to spend in Buenos Aires. I am going to have absolutely no expectations to avoid any disappointments.
Disappointment 1: Mendoza
I was very excited about tasting all these wines in Mendoza, the heart of Argentine wine industry. We had 3 options: one to take one of many regular tours through wineries for some $40-50, a posh one that would require splashing out upwards from $160 or just go to one subregion Maipu, rent a bicycle and pop in to random wineries that accept the visits. Considering lack of regular pay checks we went for a regular tour just to see how it goes and decide on the other options later. The tour started wrong from the beginning … we spent 1 hour in the tour bus collecting people from various hotels and hostels around Mendoza. Then it got worse; we went to Navarro Corres, a winery owned by Diagio (one of the biggest if not the biggest alcohol company in the word) who after absolutely boring tour of the production process served us with their probably worst and cheapest wines. Things got slightly better with a medium-size boutique winery Vistandes, that only produces for export and own consumption at the bodega. The tour was more interesting and passionate. We got to taste their Torrontes, Argentine white grape. It was not bad really but sort of strange selection of 2008 for tasting after explaining to us that the young wine that did not age in the oak barrels is best within 2-3 years… The last winery we visited was a small winery Don Arturo where the tour was fun, tasting was ‘richer’ though the wine themselves were rather non-descript; the flagship wine of this winery were 2003 vintages that the owner aged for his daughter’s wedding in 2007, those of course we did not taste! All the wine tastings we did was before lunch; somehow it did not settle with me to drink wine that early after the meagre breakfast! The best thing of the wine tour was the lunch with a humongous picada (selection of cold cuts, cheeses, salads, fresh, grilled, marinated vegetables) that was served with the non-branded house Syrah, that turned out to be the best wine we had that day; or maybe drinking wine at not before lunch is just better altogetherJ 
So my take on wine tasting in Mendoza is best to skip it. Just buy yourselves a good bottle in the shop. Most of the stores sell half bottles. It would make much better wine tasting. Mendoza itself is good to visit if you would like to do nothing but wonder the streets and hide from streets on the plazas or in the park; or alternatively if you a football fun in Argentina during the summer. Argentine league does not play so the teams play friendly summery tournaments like Copa de Mendoza. We got to see San Martin beat San Lorenzo 3:2. Sure it was not a big game like Boca v Riverplate who played there after we left (disappointing too) but it was good fun. So football not wine turned out to be the highlight of our day in Mendoza! Disappointment 2: Cordoba
Cordoba was very hot, very very hot and there was nowhere to hide from the afternoon heat because its supposedly interesting, artsy museums did not open until 5pm or one even after 8pm! So we just wondered the streets full of cheap shops, not even a decent park or a square with benches under the trees! My highlight of Cordoba was a conversation with the owner of the small grocery shop where we were buying our nibbles for the bus to Rosario. He knew Wajda, Polanski, Kieslowski movies and what was even more surprising Zbigniew Cybulski, our polish equivalent of James Dean. It does not happen very often that the shopkeeper on the other side of the world knows so much about small polish contribution to the world’s cinema! Oh, I also liked a very cheerful hippy band that played on the streets: Manana me chanto. Slight redemption: Rosario
I did not expect much of Rosario. I actually did not even want to go there. It was just convenient place to break the journey from Cordoba to Buenos Aires and it is at the end the birth place of Argentine flag, Che Guevara and of course Lionel Messi (for readers oblivious to football he is the best player these days!). Yet we had really good time there. It was still very hot, if not hotter than Cordoba but somehow seemed more pleasant and not as busy. Even the shops were nicer! Sitting in the café on the river Parana made a really good pass time. We did not get tickets to go on the boat to the river islands because the day boats were full but even walk through the park on the river was very pleasant! So do not get out of your way to get to Rosario but if you do enjoy it but if you want to sleep at night avoid hostel La Mansion de Nomada, decent place in good location but a hard-core party place with the barbeque on the rooftop starting at about midnight. Next week we are going to spend in Buenos Aires. I am going to have absolutely no expectations to avoid any disappointments.
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