Spending a weekend in Mendoza, Argentina with three of your gal-pals is the best way to relax - the views are beautiful, the wine is delicious, and the air is simply happy.
My three friends and I landed in Mendoza on Friday morning. Coming in just after sunrise, we got a beautiful view of the sun over the mountains when we landed. When we arrived to the hotel our jaws dropped, it was gorgeous. The bright blue pool, the green of the grape vines, the blue of the sky, and the sun shining over the mountains was all surreal.
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| Nothing but blue skies, blue water, and happy faces. |
The hotel we stayed at was called La Finca Terrada and it is located right outside of the city in Maipu Valley, Mendoza. It only has five rooms and we were the only four people staying there at the time. Not only was it gorgeous and relaxing, but also the facilities were nice and clean and the people who work there are phenomenal. They helped us coordinate dinner reservations, gave us suggestions, and even free glasses of wine as we sat and watched the sunset one night.
We spent Friday exploring the city of Mendoza, walking up and down the streets and through the plazas. We ate lunch at Anna Bistro on the back patio, surrounded by trees and flowers and it made the experience feel like we were eating at a bodega, or winery. After our meal, we headed back to our hotel to relax by the pool since we were all exhausted from our early flight that morning.
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| Exploring the streets of Mendoza City! |
The next morning we were picked up from the hotel to start our day of wine tours and tastings. Little did we know we picked the best time to visit Mendoza because it was harvest season, and as we pulled into our first winery of the day we got to see the harvesting in action. Our first winery was Matervini, and it was definitely my favorite. It has a very modern feel since the building is only two years old, and our guide, Gustavo, was amazing. We had a private tour of the property and even got to meet the famous owner, Santiago Achaval, who put us to work picking out stems and leaves from the grapes. Gustavo taught us that we were tasting regions rather than wines, and how to pay attention to details in the wine.
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| This photo could be a painting but I promise I took it on my camera |
Our second winery was Benegas, a more traditional and older winery. On this tour we were placed in a bigger group with people from Spain, Australia, and Holland. This was an incredible experience to meet people from all over.
The third and final winery of the day was Finca de Agostino and, of course, it was stunning. We got another private tour and we even got to climb into an empty wine fermentation room. We ate lunch at this winery and it was definitely one of the best meals of my entire life. Having an option of a three or five course meal, we all chose the three. It consisted of cold carrot soup with green apple ice cream, quinoa salad and a pork dumpling, and either a steak with Malbec salt or goat ravioli. Wanting both, I split the two main courses with my one of my friends to make sure I didn’t miss out on any of the food.
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| The owner of the winery, Santiago, put us to work by picking out stems and leaves from the grapes |
After a long morning of experiencing the culture, we spent the afternoon at the pool again and taking a nice long nap before our dinner. At the restaurant, Azafran, there was no wine list on the menu. Instead, you got up from your table and went into the wine cellar and picked it out yourself. Lucky for us we were pros by then and told the man exactly what we wanted—high altitude, full body, and with minerality. We picked a winner and had yet again a fantastic meal.
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| Sunset over the mountains to end an incredible weekend in Mendoza |
Kelsey B. is the Spring 2017 MOJO Blogger in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is currently a Junior studying Journalism & Public Relations at Indiana University.