Mendoza
We were dropped off for lunch at a winery called Renacer that was not on the route and we were assured by our non-English speaking guide (who we were told would speak English) that the menu catered for all different budgets. Our new Irish friends actually had a print-out of the budget menu for this particular winery, which was supposed to include a sharing platter and bottle of wine option at around £10 a head. We were soon told by the waiter that the menu didn’t include this, so we were looking at paying £50 for 2 of us, when all we had £20 between us.
Our guide conveniently disappeared before we could speak to him about this, and we called the tour office to see what they could do. In the meantime (and once everyone else had ordered the expensive dishes haha) the waiter came back and told us he could offer us a platter that wasn’t on the menu, and between 4 of us we had a bottle of wine and 2 sharing plates with cheese, salami, ham, bread and olives for about £10 each. It was a bit of a cock-up but worked out really well in the end, thanks to the winery rather than the tour company.
We visited 3 other wineries, including Chandon, Tapiz and A16. At Tapiz and A16, the entrance fee was used as part payment for wine which was amazing, as we came away with 3 bottles having paid the difference of about £2 in total. I would highly recommend all of them – the tours were excellent and the wine was even better. The bus tour was good if a bit disorganised, but it’s a cost-effective way of doing the wine tours.
#mendoza #winetours #vitivinicola #tapiz #ranacer #chando #a16
Baby D and I were reunited in Mendoza,
quite a few quid lighter as he took a cab to the wrong Buenos Aires airport.
Luckily he legged it across to the right airport with minutes to spare and just made his flight because we would have been even poorer
otherwise.
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| Chandon |
Mendoza is a quaint little town famous for its wine production,
primarily Malbec. Wine tours were very expensive; we were looking at around
$150 USD each. We ended up booking a hop on hop off bus, called Bus
Vitivinicola; the concept being that you choose 4 from 6 wineries to visit
and you get dropped off and picked up again later. We paid 650 Pesos ($35 USD) for
the bus, then each winery was around 150-250 Pesos (up to $15 USD) entrance on
top.
We forgot to take our credit card so we had to be careful with our cash, leaving us a bit tight for lunch. We were told that two of the wineries we wanted to visit were not open, and another couple on the tour from Ireland were told one of theirs was closed - even though we stopped there to pick some people up. That meant that 3 of the 6 wineries on the route for that day were supposedly closed. I actually think that they didn’t do an English-speaking tour at those particular places so it was easier just to say they were closed.
We forgot to take our credit card so we had to be careful with our cash, leaving us a bit tight for lunch. We were told that two of the wineries we wanted to visit were not open, and another couple on the tour from Ireland were told one of theirs was closed - even though we stopped there to pick some people up. That meant that 3 of the 6 wineries on the route for that day were supposedly closed. I actually think that they didn’t do an English-speaking tour at those particular places so it was easier just to say they were closed.
 |
| Barrels |
We were dropped off for lunch at a winery called Renacer that was not on the route and we were assured by our non-English speaking guide (who we were told would speak English) that the menu catered for all different budgets. Our new Irish friends actually had a print-out of the budget menu for this particular winery, which was supposed to include a sharing platter and bottle of wine option at around £10 a head. We were soon told by the waiter that the menu didn’t include this, so we were looking at paying £50 for 2 of us, when all we had £20 between us.
 |
| Bottles |
Our guide conveniently disappeared before we could speak to him about this, and we called the tour office to see what they could do. In the meantime (and once everyone else had ordered the expensive dishes haha) the waiter came back and told us he could offer us a platter that wasn’t on the menu, and between 4 of us we had a bottle of wine and 2 sharing plates with cheese, salami, ham, bread and olives for about £10 each. It was a bit of a cock-up but worked out really well in the end, thanks to the winery rather than the tour company.
 |
| More barrels |
We visited 3 other wineries, including Chandon, Tapiz and A16. At Tapiz and A16, the entrance fee was used as part payment for wine which was amazing, as we came away with 3 bottles having paid the difference of about £2 in total. I would highly recommend all of them – the tours were excellent and the wine was even better. The bus tour was good if a bit disorganised, but it’s a cost-effective way of doing the wine tours.
Argentina was awesome for the short time we were there. We
only had time for 11 days there and I was in Chile for some of them, but
because we went in and out of Argentina from Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, I have
accrued 4 Argentinian entry/exit stamps in my passport, so it looks like I’m
either a local or a drug smuggler. Another one to return to, and Baby D’s
favourite South American country so far.
 |
| Even more barrels |
Chile next!
#mendoza #winetours #vitivinicola #tapiz #ranacer #chando #a16
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