Argentina, wine country: you stole our hearts
By: Rachel Anderson
Tags: Wine, Argentina

Argentina, wine country: you stole our hearts

Salta, Cafayate, Mendoza, Uco Valley

We got to Salta on a gloriously sunny day with high expectations for Argentina. Expectations exceeded.

Salta is a very European city, in the north of the country. It was pretty great after months of (albeit wonderful) Andean environments. On the first night we went to a ‘pena’ — or a traditional folk party — with some Argentine girls we met at the hostel. It was in a great restaurant called La Casona del Molino and there was singing, dancing, clapping and all round locals having a fantastic time.

There was a slight awkward moment when the oldest (but younger than us!) Argentine lady said she wanted the Falklands back. Now, this is a bit uncomfortable, because obviously neither Rachel or Matt really care about the Falklands, but Matt was buggered if he was going to let an Argentine say they belonged to them. But Matt doesn’t really like fighting. So Matt just asked why the woman liked sheep farming, but she said she didn’t like sheep farming, so Matt asked why she wanted the Falkland islands, and she said that wasn’t the point. Luckily the conversation moved on.

Matt, happy.

The next day we had our first proper steaks. And they were amazing. Matt was in his spiritual home, inasmuch as any religion worships raw cow flesh.

We made it until 2am, when the locals were just getting started, but decided not to go clubbing after consuming our body weight in food and wine (Matt was later to spend some time working out if in the last two weeks we have ACTUALLY consumed our body weight in food and wine, Rachel thinks it is a metaphor.) (But Matt takes over here.) So it’s a bottle and a half each a day, and maybe a quarter pound of beef a day. Therefore, at the time of writing it has been 20kg total, which is good, and to be honest, it is starting to show, but it’s not our body weight. Still, two more weeks left!

Rachel, happy.

We decided to go on a little adventure and headed to the magical little suburb of San Lorenzo. We hadn’t

known what to expect, but it wasn’t the little woodland adventure that we ended up having. It was delightful.

We met a man running a vineyard business where you can buy your own plot for £35k, if you happen to have the cash.

…talking of vineyards, it was time to pack up and head into wine country proper.

Rachel loves, loves, loves this guy, she also likes Matt

So to Cafayate, also in the north, where they make high-altitude wines. Delicious, delicious, high altitude wines (if at any point the wine descriptions get boring just imagine a shepherd’s crook yanking Matt off the stage and skip ahead).

Our first day was spent in a hostel, and we went on a mini tour of wineries in the area, accompanied by a dog friend we met on the way. Matt was taking notes on the wines for Rachel’s next Metro article, so we could, arguably, call this “work.” (We tried about 15 wines, which Rachel thought was a lot, and Matt thought was “a good start.”)

This blog could well have been titled “Argentina… or the one in which we enjoy the perks of travel journalism”. For the next two days we stayed at a hotel Rachel is reviewing, and because we want to keep our readers

(and friends), the less we say is probably the better (the private hot tub alone would get us into a lot of trouble). But it looked a little like this. (Normally Matt is the only one to look this smug, but Rachel has clearly been taking notes.)

“Posh” Rachel on her umpteenth horse ride, Matt on his second

(WINE: Nanni Tannat 2017; 7.5/10, rich liquorice notes and — urk [shepherd’s crook])

However, Rachel is happy to report Matt has now been on his second horse. He managed to get the naughty one again, who spent the hour ride trying to nibble everything in sight.

Matt eventually got the hang of controlling him, claiming “he knows who the boss is.” Rachel knows who the boss is.

Logo design by Matt, who is pictured, as a Rat

We also made our own wine, which was very fun, blending different wines and grapes and styles. Rachel more or less just let Matt enjoy himself (a lot), getting all worked up over which percentage of which grape ought to go together (40% Malbec, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Tannat).

It was undeniably delicious in the end — turns out idiots abroad can actually made a decent bottle of vino.

It was time to move on (it wasn’t we went to lots more wineries, but this is essentially boring to read about, needless to say, we drank loads of wines, Matt started to become bloated), and another 24 hours journey (literally 24 hours on a smelly, expensive bus) took us to Mendoza. Mendoza is in central Argentina and is its most famous wine region. Buy a steak and you should buy a Mendoza Malbec.

Uco Valley, near Mendoza — just LOOK at it

Continuing our flashpacking run, we had a lovely couple of days in the south of Mendoza staying at a family-run hotel called Finca Adalgisa. We used their bikes to explore the area, visiting various wineries (Matt: “I’m getting nose fatigue”. Which is a thing, sometimes there’s only so many wines you can try. If any ex-Laithwaites people read this they will be able to back me up — Rachel: Matt was now rapidly developing gout, so its best he slowed down.)

We even had a bath in wine, but you can read all about that in Rachel’s upcoming article (we didn’t take pictures, you’ll be pleased to hear.)

Then, to the Uco Valley, 70 miles south of Mendoza, to get there we rented a motorbike.

Our steed, 1000cc, should have killed us

Matt, happy.

Matt having not driven a manual in many years (since a memorable occasion in the woods when he was 15 on a bike Tony (remember him mum?) probably stole), there were several false starts. We got a nervous message from the owner saying “everything ok?” when we got there, to which he responded with no less than 10 clapping emojis. So we made it, and it was bloody gorgeous.

RESPETO MI BANDERA

So to more vineyard tours and tastings, at the point where Matt decided we probably had consumed our combined body weight in food and wine (we hadn’t, as discussed….yet). We had an interesting lunch at a restaurant/bodega(winery) called La Azul, where our host was wearing their official t-shirt… which said… RESPECT MY FLAG overlaid on the Falkland islands.

This is Matt, not arguing about the Falklands

Matt doesn’t want to get into this, because Rachel won’t let him, but he will. But Argentine hasn’t got, and never has had, any claim to the Falkland islands and it is super weird how much they care about these essentially worthless islands. They really care, and it would be adorably weird had loads of people not died for it. If you really hate yourself you can read this wikipedia page but the bottom line is the inhabitants don’t want to be Argentine and that’s that. However, Matt hasn’t got into a proper row about it yet, because he’s scared of getting beaten up. He has been a bit sarcastic, so chalk that up for improving Argentine-British relations.

Anyway, Rachel is back — our fancy double life was over, we’d had six nights of utter luxury, and it was time to head back to a hostel in Mendoza (and a 6 bed dorm) where we are going to spend Christmas. So, taking off our fancy-pants, we will leave this here.