Wine and luxury in Mendoza!

Although we went a few days/weeks with only a few posts, we are going to start catching up before our time in South America is over! (We leave in less than 2 weeks!) As with most posts, there are a million things I want to tell you about our awesome week in Mendoza and somehow I have to organize them and probably leave out a few things so that this post doesn´t become unwieldy! A few days ago we left Mendoza, the most famous wine region in Argentina, after having spent six days enjoying the city, the surrounding valleys, the Natonal Wine Festival, and the outrageously luxurious Sheraton Hotel! You are probably wondering after several weeks of hostels, "They stayed at the Sheraton?" Well, lucky for us, during his time as a consultant, Amit built up several thousand Starwood points, which are redeemable for free nights at several very nice hotel chains. So we decided, given the romantic reputation of Mendoza, that we would cash in some of these points and enjoy the city in the lap of luxury! And so we did: an absolutely beautiful suite-style room with a view of the mountains, wine tasting all day in the lobby, cocktails and hors d`oeuvres in the evenings, a HUGE gourmet breakfast every morning in the panoramic top floor members´ lounge, and delicious desserts unexpectedly delivered to our room several evenings during our stay, all for free! Admittedly, we got a little (or a lot!) spoiled during our stay and so arriving at our next accomodations (a truly lovely hostel in San Juan) was quite a shock to the system! But for ANY of you who are considering visiting Mendoza (on a larger budget than ours), we HIGHLY recommend the Sheraton Hotel! Other than enjoying the incredible ammenities at our hotel, our visit in Mendoza had two focuses... first, touring wineries and tasting wine in the region, and second, attending the events of the National Wine Festival, called Vendimia (Spanish for grape harvest). Similar to the Napa wine-making region, Mendoza has several small valleys around the city where the vineyards and wineries are located. Despite the recommendation from the Sheraton that we hire a private driver (for $200 a day!), we decided to take the public bus out to the valleys and then rent bicycles to ride from winery to winery. It was GREAT fun and a very good way to enjoy the scenery as well as the wineries... and don´t worry, a few tastings didn´t affect our bicycle driving! Our two favorite wineries (one from each day we toured) were Carinae, a very small winery in Maipu that only makes about 60,000 (very tasty!) bottles a year, and Weinert, a much larger winery in Lujan de Cuyo that uses a very old fashion aging process for their wines... they keep some wines in the oak barrels for 10 years! In fact, at Weinert, we saw wines in the barrel from 1994 and wines still aging in the bottle from 1977!!! Amazing that they are still drinkable, but the sommalier said that they are extremely tasty and will even continue to improve for another 10 years. Overall, the touring was fantastic, and the experience will definitely give us a greater knowledge of Argentinian wines when we are searching for great bottles back in the US. And finally, a few stories from the National Vendimia Festival. You are probably thinking the same thing we thought before we got to Mendoza for the festival... wine festival in Mendoza means lots of wine everywhere you look! Ironically, although there is a LOT of wine available in Mendoza all year long, this festival is actually more like a Miss America Pageant than a drunken street party. The main events of the festival are two parades, one on Friday night and one on Saturday morning, where the regional "Queens" (each elected from the various neighborhoods around Mendoza) ride through the streets on floats, throwing (get this!) produce, most often grapes (but sometimes melon or eggplant!), to the crowd, and then a huge musical performance on Saturday night in a large open-air amphitheater in Mendoza´s main park where they announce the Miss Vendimia winner. Although the Sheraton didn´t usually do a good job recommending budget activities to do in Mendoza, they were able to get us two highly coveted tickets to the Saturday night performance, which was outstanding! The show included nearly 500 singers and dancers performing a fictional but symbolic story of one winemaker´s youth and young adulthood in Mendoza, growing his first grape crop and building a winery. The performance and emceeing was all in Spanish, but we got the gist and really enjoyed the event. And, in case you were wondering, the Queen from San Martin won and the Queen from Godoy Cruz was the runner-up! So after a wonderful visit to Mendoza (other than Antarctica, it was probably my favorite place on our trip so far!), we said goodbye a few days ago and set off for our next few adventures in San Juan, Tucuman, and Salta provinces! Keep a look out for more stories and pictures to come! Lots of love, Dena & Amit

The cute company car of Bikes and Wine, who´s motto is "Don´t Worry Drink Happy" Amit outside of Luigi Bosca, one of the largest, most famous, most beautiful wineries we visited The picturesque vineyard at Luigi Bosca Amit and Dena in front of a huge oak barrel (actively used) at Weinert, proudly sporting the Napa Valley t-shirts furnished by Dena´s grandmother The winning Queen (before she won) on her float in the Vendimia Parade Another great float at the parade The Saturday night performance The 15 Queens on Saturday night before the winner is announced