South America 2016 — first stop Mendoza, Argentina
by Gil on Feb.10, 2016, under Happenings
This is a bucket list trip that Joyce and I have been thinking about for several years. Its been 35 years since I have been to Argentina and Brazil. Joyce as not been to two of my favorite countries in Latin America so this is it. Tony Huffman our friend organizes a incredible trip for us, we don’t have to lift a finger, just a glass, a fork, a camera and a pen to write the check. We leave Thursday January 21 from Savannah through Atlanta to Santiago, Chile then on to Mendoza, Argentina. Our first stop is the Cavas Wine Lodge, a vineyard and first class hotel. We are met by our host/guide Agostina Astegiano and our driver for the one hour drive to our lodge. Then we are checked in to our Casita which is in the Vineyard itself. We have lunch and then relax before the cooking class that we have signed up for. Leo the resort chef turns out to be delightful and we have great fun cooking empanadas  and a Argentine vegetable/chicken dish over an open fire. Its fun and of course we taste wine then enjoy our dinner, before crashing. Our casita is great, the view of the Andes is stunning and we get a full nights sleep.
- Entrance to Cavas
- Cavas Wine Lodge
- Main building of Cavas
- View from our Casita
- Our casita pool
Time for the cooking class, we are tired but its so much fun we forget about it and it means an early by Argentine standards dinner.
- Chef Leo and Joyce
- Joyce at work
- Chef Leo gets us started
The next day after breakfast its off to do some wine touring. Our objective is to learn about Argentine wines particularly their varietal Malbec. We are in the Lujan de Cuyo Valley region and start by visiting a winery (Bodega) started by an American with an Argentine partner, the Paul Hobbs winery. We then visit  and do tasting at the Bodega Casarena.
- Entrance to Bodega Paul Hobbs
- Learning about the regions
- Just like Napa Valley
- Tasting at Paul Hobbs
- Bodega Casarena
- Casarena American Oak barrels
- Casarena tasting
After the winery visits we finish the tasting with lunch at Osadia de Crear at the the Dominio Del Plata Winery. The wines are impressive and the lunch is over the top both in terms of the quality of the wine and food.
- Osadia de Crear more wine
- Incredible lunch
We have dinner at the lodge, which is of course is very good, with Chef Leo preparing something special for us.
Saturday after breakfast we are out again to explore the Mendoza wine country. We start with, what turns out to be our favorite winery Bodega Benegas, which is owned by one of Argentina’s oldest wine families. In fact we like one of their wines so well we arrange to have a case shipped to the US. These bottles will not be cheap, so only our best friends will ever get a wiff of this ambrosia. The winery itself is interesting in that the founding father kept old wine making tools as well as a collection of Goucho ponchos and decorated the winery with his collection. The wine was superb particularly their FBL 2010 Blend.
- Bodega Benegas
- Renzo our tour guide
- Early press
- Early Irrigation cart
- Collection of old tools and poncho’s
- Renzo and Agostina having fun
We visit Bodega Malipal and finish with another great lunch at Vistalbas. Malipal is a modern winery and if closed your eyes you would be in Napa Valley. It turns out that Agostina our guide is not only a wonderful person she is a wine maker herself as is her husband to be. She is a delight to be with and a fountain of knowledge about Argentine wines. We then have a tasting lunch Bodega Vistalba.
- Bodega Malipal
- Wine from the barrel
- Malipal tasting room
- Lunch at Vistalba
Its time to relax and enjoy Cavas Wine Lodge, who’s owner is an artist so its not a surprise to find a very arty cow in the vineyard. The grapes are getting ripe and we can image that being their during the crush would be incredible. We enjoy one last great meal at the Lodge and then in the morning we are off to Bariloche.
- Getting ripe
- A very artsy cow in the vineyard
- Our last dinner at Cavas Wine Lodge