Chasing Mendoza Chardonnay - Saturday 19th Oct 2019

Down in the lobby at 9.25 for our winery tour. The minibus takes us across the plains and over the dry Mendoza River bed. The Andes are in front of us, robbing the area of rainfall - they are mainly reliant on Snow melt for their water.

Many of the premium grapes have a kevlar netting shield as hailstorms are a common occurence in summer. The weather is extreme.

Ties made of a dried reed ( a bit like toitoi)

Our first winery was a small one called Caelium. It had an Italian wine maker who came and talked to us about the  Mendoza Chardonnay Clone, but she said they had sourced their chardonnay clone from Italy. we were served pistachio nuts as a nibble - apparently they do well here too.

The second winery Susanna Balbo served us an unoaked chardonnay - which tasted pretty much like  a sav as it was a highly acidic. They pick all their chardonnay early whereas we pick chardonnay for champagne early and leave the rest at least a month

Cute egg shaped fermentation tanks

This is an Artwork of a beautiful dress made entirely of discarded plastic bags

The third winery and restaurant was Renacer.

This M pruning system is what we used on our gewurztraminer when it was young.

The Kevlar screens raised up.

This is our last chance to find Mendoza Chardonnay and we get to try one as part of an exhausting 3 course lunch.

The tour party

Entree - sweetbreads and sweet potato

Main - steak with herb sauce -the "green vegetable" for today, and a layered potato dish

Dessert - Dulce de leche three different ways

It is about 3.30pm when we get loaded back into the bus. I have had to get most of my main put into a doggy bag.

We take a nap and then go for a walk, being careful to avoid the drainage system that is set up to keep the trees alive to offer shade in summer and shelter in winter.

They are called "gringo traps"  because of the number of visitors to the town who fall into them and break/sprain their ankles. Instead of going out for a meal we graze on the doggy bag. We manage to catch up on the deteriorating situation in Chile. Seven dead in riots over the Metro.