Saturday at the Bodegas (Wineries)

Saturday at the Bodegas (Wineries)

Saturday, Jan. 21, Maipu, Argentina

I took the bus to Maipu this morning. It is the center of the wine district around Mendoza. Actually, my bus only took me to the first winery out in the country--Bodega La Rural. According to the guidebooks, it is the one winery to visit if you can only go to one. It is an old one, and they have a great museum stocked with equipment they have used through the years. I got there at 9:30 and was guided by Pablo, a cute college student in dumpy looking dress. There were three Spanish speakers and me in the tour. He would explain each thing in Spanish and send the others to look around while he then explained it all to me in English. I thought it interesting that he had such a serious look when he explained in Spanish. Then as soon as he started in English, his face broke into a warm smile. It was a good tour--one hour long--showing the old cowhide baskets and grape crushing equipment originally used, followed by the woven baskets and wooden buckets with poles that are turned to crush the grapes, followed by the more modern process using plastic baskets to collect the grapes and concrete vats with stainless steel rods with curved blades to move the grapes into the crushers. We went into their old cask room with the huge wooden casks manufactured in France and shipped in pieces here where a local man put them together, into their modern cask room with the smaller wooden casks bought already formed today from France and the USA, into their modern fermentation vat area, etc. It was comprehensive and good. At the end, we stopped at the tasting room where they only give tastes of special vintages they sell at the winery (so that retailers cannot be upset with them being competetitors). They make serveral brands of wine--San Felipe, Familia Rutini, and TrumpeTer--and their wines are exported to the US.

I walked from there into the town of Maipu. It´s a small city with a beautiful central square. The square has a wonderful fountain and lots of colorful flowers lining its walkways. I had a snack at one of the local places (an Argentinean hot dog called a super pancho). Then I went to two other wineries. One, Antiqua Bodega Giol, has seen better days. The other, Bodegas Lopez, is a very modern winery. Both had their own atmosphere. I was too late for the tour at Bodegas Lopez, however, since their last tour on Saturdays is at 12:30.

I got on the Internet after getting back to Mendoza and was disappointed that I still hadn´t heard from the hotel where I had hoped to stay in Valparaiso. I did have a second e-mail from another place, so I wrote to ask them to reserve the room for me. Two minutes after I finished writing them, an e-mail came in from my preferred place. I wrote them back telling them that they were too late. It´s too bad. Where I will stay is cheaper, but I have to have a shared bath on the hall. My prefered place is much nicer and has a private bath. I´ll live. And the guy at the other place has been too nice for me to write back and cancel right after confirming I wanted the room. Now I need to go to the bus station and buy my ticket for Tuesday before all the seats are sold.

Tomorrow should be a quiet day. Not much happens in Argentina, even in big cities, on Sundays. I will probably go to the huge park on the west side of town and take my book. Will write about it in a day or two.