Have You Heard From Laura?

Vines at La Rural

Barrels at Escorihuela

It’s late in the season and the rain that has followed me from San Martin to Pucon and now here to Mendoza seems to be urging me northward to Bolivia. I can´t miss a stop in Mendoza before heading north. Mendoza is located in western Argentina, just east of the Andes, not far from Santiago. Mendoza is famous for Aconcaugua, the highest peak in South America – maybe it’s the second highest in the world. Mendoza is also famous for wine. The climate around here is dry but a lot of water runs down from the Andes and this makes the vines happy. Winery tours are the thing to do here – and are a great answer to a rainy day. Wine making is pretty complex. I find that with each tour I pick up a couple of new things. The wine and the tour at La Rural didn´t impress me much but they have a really interesting wine making museum with old winemaking equipment on display. Another day I visited Escorihuela. My small group was shown around by Silvina who showed us everything from crushing to barreling to bottling. The engineer in me is fascinated with the fermentation processes and the automation – what a geek! The foodie in me really enjoyed the wine at Escorihuela. We tried a syrah-malbec blend that was super fruity – just the way I like my vino tinto. In the States, Escorihuela is sold as Gascon – look for it. Since the devaluation of the Argentinian peso 3 years ago, I figure these wines are very good values.

Friends at home be on the lookout for these imports from Argentina: Don David, Gascon, San Filipe (Chardonay), Flichman.

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