25 Dollar Travel » Wine tasting in Mendoza

Wine tasting in Mendoza

Written by Marco Morawec

When traveling through South America you absolutely have to sample, drink an enjoy the great variety of world class Wines in each region. If you don’t take advantage of the very affordable and fabulously great vibes you simply miss out – unless you don’t drink any alcohol or Wine that is.

One of the best ways of sampling superb Wines in great local vineyards using a fun mode of transportation is in Mendoza, Argentina. The latest guidebooks compare it to the Napa Valley of the 70s: high quality Wines at a great price. Throw in that you can rent a bicycle and bike to each vineyard and I was sold and ready to hit the streets. When else do you have the chance to bike from one vineyard to another and taste delicious Wine in between?

Naturally, I had to rent a tandem bike for me and my partner straight away, only to shamefully return and exchange it for two single bikes after missing a truck by inches, hitting a fence and almost riding into a ditch. Who knew that riding a tandem was so much different from a single bike!?

Riding the single bikes was much better and arriving at the first vineyard was breathtaking: a picturesque and old house build in the 1860s by Italian immigrants, surrounded by green Wine-grapes stretching as far as the eye can see. The perfect setting for a light salad and a first Wine tasting of three house Wines and one dessert Wine.

Biking along the road to the next vineyard was a hell of a lot more fun than than earlier in the day, thanks to some generous pouring. That fun feeling lasted until I had the great idea of biking through some of the backroads zigzagging through the vineyard fields and got chased by some serious guard dogs. I escaped by inches!

Arriving at the second vineyard was surreal. It was all posh, polished and modern looking. The rooftop terrace looked, again, over vast lands filled with grapes and was decked out with couches and tables. All three glasses where filled much higher than what I expected, super good and simply added to a the jet setter experience.

After tasting ten glasses of Wine you obviously feel a bit over the thought of more Wine. So you think, what goes well with Wine? Exactly, chocolate! Good thing the chocolate museum was only a few kilometers down the road.

After eating a ton of yummy chocolate the friendly staff pulled out the homemade likoers and absinthe to send us well on our way of a wobbly bike ride back to the rental place where we hoped onto the public bus to bring us back to the inner city of Mendoza.

It was a great and very affordable day: all transportation, bike rental, lunch, two Wine an one chocolate/limpet tasting set me back a meager $15! That was all I paid for a day of new experiences and world class Wine.

Go travel and experience the magic that is out there!

What was your last great experience?

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Posted on 28 January 2011

About the Author

My name is Marco Morawec. I set out to explore the world in 2001. Since then I've been a successful 4-times expat, traveler to over 30 countries and EU sponsored exchange student. I explored Europe in a camper-van, taught English from a straw thatched African hut and surfed waves in Israel. Read more...

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Wine tasting in Mendoza

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