Biking and Wining!

    Before deciding to study abroad in Mendoza, I researched a little about the area and what to do here. One of the first activities I found was the bike and wine tours that you can take in the vineyards of Mendoza. I'd been wanting to do this since we arrived here! It was a very easy process to make this happen. Yesterday a group of us took a micro for 40 minutes to a region of the Mendoza province called Maipú, where there are a lot of vineyards. All the plants are dead right now since it is winter, but there was still an absolutely gorgeous view of the snow topped mountains behind all the vineyards. The street where we got off the bus has probably 5 or 6 different companies that all rent bikes for the day. We found the cheapest one and rented old beaten up bikes for 4 dollars for the entire day from a place called Mr. Hugo. We were promised assistance if our bikes break down half way through our trip; this must be common... Helmets and bike locks weren't an option either.  Phoebe and I decided to rent a tandem. It was so old, stiff and heavy with two of us on there that it was actually a really good work out through the day, and we were only biking on flat ground. I'm also pretty sure Phoebe didn't do much pedeling in the back ;-)

 












  
There is a 10 kilometer stretch of vineyards, homes, and other food and drink shops that is bikable in Maipú. We started out by biking almost the entire stretch to one of the last vineyards that is supposed to be one of the best. This vineyard was called Familia di Tomaso. The actual place where the wine was made from this vineyard was located another 10 kilometers down the road, but now the location where we went is a museum of very old and obsolete winery machines. For only 3 dollars we received a tour and very lengthy explanation of all of the processes in the winery and different types of wine. This was all in Spanish, and I followed most of it, but our tour guide lost me at points until I heard the word degustación and knew we were ready for the actual wine tasting.
    I don't have much experience or knowledge about wine, but our tour guide was a perfect wine snob, and taught us how to analyze the different wines by color, smell, and taste. We sampled a cabernet, malbec, a white wine, and port dessert wine. All delicious. We were supposed to be able to smell certain ingredients in the wine, such as olives in the cabernet, and cherries in the malbec. All I smelled was wine. My nose isn't that sophisticated. We were very spoiled, though, during the tasting because we were practically poured full glasses of wine to taste. I'm always surprised when people pour out their wine if they don't like it, rather than drink it.
    After this vineyard and lunch, we only had time for one more place, and decided to go to Entre Olivos, where they make olive oil, chocolate, and various liqueurs. We sampled olive spreads, jams, and other spreads, chocolate, and two liqueurs. I tried dulce de leche liqueur and another fruity one.
    When we returned our bikes, the shop owner gave us three free bottles of wine. I have no idea why, but it's pretty common that our group of Americans has been getting a lot of free alcohol.