February 7,

Today was Jeff’s birthday!!!!🎂🎂

We were up and about by 0700. It was a lovely morning and since we were up earlier than most days, we went on a walkabout. The early sun lit up things so much better, with long shadows as well. We actually noticed a particular building… It was painted with hummingbirds! We had walked by numerous times before and neither of us recalled the painting. It helped that a very brightly sun-drenched sign in front drew our attention! Anyway we got in a number of steps, because we’re not sure how much we will get later on a planned outing. We passed a busy pastry shop, called La Vene, and decided to have pastries for breakfast. We found two different chocolate centered ones and bought one of each, as takeaway. Back at our place, we had the pastries with a plum each and yogurt, out on our balcony as we enjoyed our Javas, & watching our bird friends. Then I blogged as Jeff read/planned. At noon we went back out to get lunch. We passed through the Independence Plaza where one fountain had pink/purple colored water plumes. I thought the water in the pool reminded me of Malbec wine. Anyway, Jeff wanted some Shawarma – it’s his birthday, after all.😂 At Arabian Restaurante (on the same street as the Israeli memorial) we ordered one beef and one lamb shawarma to go. They gave it to us in a pizza box! Back at our place we had it on our balcony.

Now finally at 1400, we walked a block to the Premier Hotel. Here we were picked up for our outing… a wine tour. We waited inside the hotel. Jeff said a room here is $150/night right now. HUH?? At 1425 a man, our guide, Hugo, introduced himself. He took us to a minibus and we boarded with 12 others. Then three more stops with four others coming on board, making us a group of 18, total. Now we started out. Hugo got up and explained our tour adventure in Spanish and English, as the driver, Ryan, drove us out of town. We will be visiting three Wineries and an Olive Oil place. Mendoza has 1200 wineries, 120 of which are “turistico.” Hugo pointed out and explained, as we passed walnut trees, that Argentina grows many walnuts, some almonds and third pistachios for export. But he said the primary crop was the grape for wine. We then saw vineyards marching to the horizon with trees of the olives, walnuts, etc. mixed in. Of course, this was with the Andes ever present, as a backdrop. Hugo said we were on Hwy 40, the longest highway in Argentina (over 3200 miles).

We arrived at Cecchin. It’s been a vineyard since 1959. Victoria became our vineyard guide. We joined a group for a tasting. We tried four wines: a Naranjo seco(orange flavored); a Sangiovese; a Malbec Roble (We liked this one. It was velvety and we bought a bottle – 14,000ARS/$9.74); and the last/fourth one, a Espumante Dulce. Then Victoria led us out to tour the vineyard, and she talked about their production here. They do “flood” irrigation watering. We noticed lots of grapes on the vines – they harvest in March, April and May as this is their fall.

We all loaded up and moved on. Next stop was the Olive Oil place, PaSrai – the name was derived from the first three letters in Spanish for raisin, and the second three letters in English for raisin. Our guide, Andrea, said it takes 11 kg of olives to make one liter of oil. She also said you should only keep EVOO- Extra Virgin Olive Oil for six months once opened. We moved from the production area to the tasting area. But before the tasting she told us of different cosmetics and lotions made from olives, even offered us a sample of a couple of products. Then we tried several olive oils on bread, some breads had different spreads. We liked the picante(pepper) and garlic olive oils best. It was great EVOO, but we will be leaving soon and couldn’t justify carrying any. But we did buy a small bit of honey with walnuts and almonds (6,000 ARS/$4.17).

We loaded up and moved on to the second tasting, which was at Vistandes. We noticed they had a drip water system as we pulled in. Immediately they started with a tour (didn’t catch the tour guide’s name). The stainless steel wine casts here held 15 hl or 15,000 l per cast! It is a bigger vineyard. We went down to the holding “pools.” Our guide was a fast talker, hard to follow, but at least all the tours are in English! A side note: we did notice a film room that had a film projector. Our guide mentioned the projector works and is from 1931! Anyway, we moved to the tasting area. We were turned over to another guide (couldn’t catch her name either). We had three wine tastings: a Torrontes Dulce- was floral, fruity; a Joven Malbec (young Malbec)- was done in French oak barrels; lastly, a combination Blend de Tintas – 70% Carmenere, 30% Malbec. We bought a half sandwich [sliced ham on one piece of bread (2,000 ARS/$1.39)] to eat with the last wine. We bought a bottle of this one (12,000 ARS/$8.34). This place had a really nice groomed setting or layout, and maybe some huts or cabins you could spend the night in.

We all loaded up and moved to our last vineyard, Esencia. It was established in 1870. This tour had a different approach – as we taste three wines, we go on a tour of the facility. It is more like a museum with Thomas our guide. Our first wine was their version of a Torrontes Dulce. Second was another Naranjo wine. As we sipped this wine Thomas talked of the Mafia and the secret door in front of us. I did not catch it all, but the door was cool! The third wine was a Cab Sav – it was marginally better with chocolate bite, in a wine cast room. This winery ended up using tar to fix leaks in their holding tanks! Of course this made the wine toxic!! So they were forced to stop production here and move four km away to a new production area. Anyway we did not buy any wines here, not because of the tar issue 🤣, but rather we found the wines all lacking.

By 1905 we left and boarded the van to head back. What a great day!! Most importantly, Jeff said he had a great birthday!!