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Back to Buenos Aires followed by a flight to Mendoza means another "two box lunch" day. Over 3000 km of flying gave us this beautiful view of the city as we landed in BA from Patagonia. We know Jorge Newberry airport so well we have our personal favorite bagno. After flying most of the day we are met in Mendoza with the news we have an almost 2 hour drive to our hotel deep in the Uco Valley wine region to the South. The tour planner was hiding her head in the back seat. The road was long, traffic was horrible and soon we were driving through the most ramshackle areas we had been in. The silence in the van is getting thicker and thicker. Then we turn off on a dusty road unto an even narrower dustier road. The only thing saving us was the rows of vineyards we were bumping through. By now it would take a chain saw to cut the silence. We almost miss the tiny turn into..........Paradise. After two full weeks of hard traveling we are here to do nothing but relax in this is a slice of heaven with fabulous rooms, lavish furnishings, and a lush setting. This former private vacation home of a wealthy Argentine family shows all the devotion of being built and furnished with exquisite taste and care. It is all ours. http://www.casaantucura.com/ |
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| The four ladies in the forecourt are dancing because they found their way here. |
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| Welcome wine, by the way, the family who owns this owns the winery surrounding it so we are drinking their private stock. |
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| Simple style. Huge covered verandas on three sides take advantage of the dry desert weather. Yes , this is a desert and one of the worlds largest oasis. Mendoza is the largest. The rivers that flow from the Andes run into these valleys and none of the water ever leaves the valley. Every precious drop is carefully regulated and controlled. Water rights pass with the deed to the property. With out water it is desert as only 7cm of rain falls a year. It also means every vine gets just the water it needs when they need it Perfect fruit is the result. |
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| Second floor library has access to all 6 bedrooms. The only other people who were there most of the time we were there were the chefs family enjoying a bit of a holiday. Utter pampered luxury with staff, chef and wine fetcher, all at our beck and call. Oh, about the total peace and quiet and fresh air, it was total. |
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What to do on a day of hanging out and doing nothing? |
First look out our bedroom window at the Andes, snow capped painted golden peach in the morning light. Then it was time for coffee in the living room. Wonderful delicious rich perfectly made coffee.
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| Breakfast of course was an assortment of pastry and fruit plus what ever else we wished cooked to order. |
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Next it is time for a morning walk. Strolling across the lawn to the sparkling blue pool in the morning sunlight. |
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Amble through the rose garden to vineyard and visit the horse in the orchard where fruit trees are laden with pears and apples in the early fall month of March. |
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Smell the roses |
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| Wander through more vines and steal a few bunches, super sweet and warm from the sun. |
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| Bird watch |
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| Check out a few more vines. |
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| After all this exercise we need to rest, read and contemplate the view. |
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| Finally it is wine time and we try another Antucura wine followed by a light snack. Don't want to ruin our dinner. |
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| The temperature is perfect so the afternoon is a wonderful time for a bridge game. The guys waxed us so that took a bit of the fun out of a perfect day. |
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| We decided to fly the flag in a closet so as not to upset anyone. Chile is just over the mountain. |
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| Dinner is getting close. We can dine anywhere we chose on the property. |
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| Watching the sun set means dinner is near. |
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| Time for more trick drinking pictures. The perfect end to a perfect day. Jon has mentioned something about dragging him out of here with both heels dug three feet in the ground. Another night of absolute quiet under the starry southern sky. Mendoza and the wine tours We have scheduled 7 wineries in 2 days of touring. It was amazing how each winery was a bit different and unique. Super glamorous new facilities to old quaint family run fincas, all wine growers and makers. http://www.decero.com/ http://bodegarucamalen.com/index-eng.html http://www.altavistawines.com/ Ruca Malen is one of the former. In this glass gazebo, sitting in middle of the vines, they serve an exquisite lunch pairing with their wines. The wines were great and the food was unbelievable. We were there with Ricardo who has a degree in English and wine making so he is an excellent knowledgeable tour leader. paez.ricardo@gmail.com  5 Courses and we licked our plates clean and did not leave any wine either.     Domain St Diego The smallest sells only to people who come to their door. Owned by the former wine master at the largest winery in Argentina this is a family dream. All his children work here. It is old style with the olives interspersed with vines. That way they had two crops to offer.  This is the view from the hill of the vines and very old olive trees.  While standing here enjoying the view next to the cross the phone rang with the news that Amy had delivered Alexandra Christine Bowers 20 minutes previous. Lots of cheers and tears.   This is the gate that lets their precious water flow. Note the lock, the water police have the only key. They come and unlock it when their turn comes. The winery stores the water in huge ponds or cisterns to use when they need.  |
A toast to Alexandra was offered by the winery with the sparkling pink champagne named for the owners 4 year old granddaughter. That is her play house with our guide, her tiny aunt.
We timed this trip well to be here at the harvest so we saw things like this hand sorting of the grapes at a large winery.
The wine lunch and pairing is done at several of the larger wineries and we had another one at Melipal. The food was every bit as perfect. It is a real chore to have to do this two days running.
http://www.bodegamelipal.com/
Our home in the city of Mendoza. B&B Plaza Italia. A small B&B run by the family that used to live there. Javier is the son. He ran the 2nd wine tour that we took. The staff where so helpful. Particularly as Jon and I had a quest. Our daughter-in-law, Diana's father, had lived here 50 years ago. His son Enrico grew up here. He gave us directions to the family home. He also has been looking for his best friend who used to live next door. The staff at the B&B took up the hunt, They found that his friend had died but got a phone number for his son.
As for the house we found it as it is in a prominent location about 10 blocks from where we are staying.
http://www.plazaitalia.net/
The main square and fountain of the city.
The search for Aldo's home.
The gate of the largest park directly across the street from Aldo's former house.
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See that huge apartment building. It is one of two apartments crammed side by side on the lot where the Mariottis used to live. Things change in 50 years. |
Our last day we spent doing some shopping on the pedestrian street and lunch was in an English pub. They are checking the beer list. A bit over the top on wine at this point.
We were not that full of wine so we killed a bottle we didn't want to pack on the patio of the B&B.
It was time to pack and fly back to BA, head for old friends at Legado Mitico who kindly held our luggage for the afternoon while we revisited Palermo before our 9:30 overnight flight to Dallas. As luck would have it we had one more adventure as our cab driver from the airport and some of his cohorts were preparing to rob us of our suitcases when the staff from the hotel chased them off.
Many thanks to Gary Shippy and Jon Sutera for taking all these excellent pictures. It made my job really difficult in selecting what to showcase. There are 7 Argentina chapters in all so enjoy. See you all this fall in Europe.
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