Mendoza was a great place to spend an extended holiday weekend drinking wine and eating too much steak. It’s a one-hour flight from Santiago and 1.5 from Buenos Aires. There are over 300 wineries around Mendoza which afford plenty of opportunities to visit, taste, and eat. I cashed in some travel credits I had accrued and splurged on a luxury boutique hotel. The room had a sauna, steam room, outdoor hot tub, and full kitchen. I don’t often travel like this, but when I do I really relish the experience. The hotel was a perfect accompaniment to a lazy weekend spent enjoying perfect weather (sunny and warm) and wine, I spent three days here resting and decompressing.
I visited four different wineries during the stay, and each was beautiful, historic, and fun. It’s easy to find convenient, private, packaged excursions online that will pick you up from your hotel and chauffeur you to any number of bodegas, removing the obligation of a rental car and self-navigating. This is the best way to do wine tours in Mendoza and allows you to just enjoy the experience.
The last time I was in Mendoza was eight years ago and I knew right after I arrived at my Airbnb that I did the trip all wrong. I was there for a week near the city center while working and didn’t get a chance to visit a winery, go wine tasting, or eat great food. I knew that I would need to return again someday and do Mendoza properly, and I knew that I would, so like so many other reconnaissance trips go, I wasn’t disappointed or upset, I had fun doing Mendoza “incorrectly” anyway. One of the benefits of traveling iteratively is that you can always return to a destination with additional knowledge and experience to do it again, better. And this time I did!
Mendoza is a great destination to spend a lazy weekend doing vacation things. There are lots of hikes in the surrounding mountains, horseback riding, fishing, and of course great wine and food. It’s also effortlessly accessible to arrange the logistics. There are plenty of hotels to stay at and you can either rent a car to do things at your pace, hire a personal driver, or join a group tour. This is the sort of destination that should be iteratively explored. I heard that there are over three hundred wineries in the region which gives plenty of opportunities to return to explore again and again.
I must admit that I am no wine conniseur. Though I do my diligence in exploring distinct varietals in the regions that I visit (see Montevideo, Uruguay, Reims, France, and Santiago, Chile), I’m not much of a wine person. I have a bad palette that makes it difficult to appreciate the nuances, flavors, and characteristics of each varietal. I do find it a fun game and learning opportunity to attempt to appreciate each glass, however. Drinking wine with a friend who appreciates it is always an enjoyable experience, like watching a movie together while sharing a bowl of popcorn.
But when I am analyzing a glass of wine, I feel a little like how a blind man must feel while listening to others describe to him an artistic masterpiece. I would love to experience the pleasures that wine aficionados have when they drink wine, but mostly I taste a sour, bitter, alcoholic flavor indiscriminate of region, variety, or year. There are a couple of allusions to other flavors, around the edges of an initial sip. But the best I can do when my eyes are closed is to distinguish red wine from white wine (usually).
I have a theory as to why taste is my worst sense (and my least favorite). In eleventh-grade chemistry class, we had a laboratory exercise involving sulfuric acid. At some point during the hour-long partner-assigned tasks we needed to work through, I looked down to notice that the long-sleeved shirt that I was wearing had an odd, discolored stain on the sleeve. For some reason, I determined I needed to sniff it to determine what it was (I know, right?). It was sulfuric acid (surprise!) and I’m somewhat certain that’s how I eliminated much of my ability to taste, appreciate, and love food and wine. At least it’s an explanation.
