I had tasted no wine on my first day in Mendoza. I was determined that that not be the case on my second. In fact, I had booked an all-day tour of wineries in the Uco Valley, and I was excited to get started.

I decided to head downstairs early and found Gerardo had already arrived. He welcomed me into the van where a family of three were already situated. They were from the DC area, educators visiting their son who was studying in Santiago. Their daughter couldn’t make the trip.

I chatted with Aiden on the drive south, comparing notes on Santiago and the places he’d visited. He said that Santiago wanted somewhat for food and he found himself making pilgrimages back to Lima to eat. I told him I understood.

Gerardo kept a steady stream of facts about the area and the vinticulture as we continued south. I couldn’t hear him well from my seat in the back and took the opportunity to relax and nap.

Our first winery was the Familia Zaina, a small bodega producing some 12,000 bottles a season on ten labels, from 300 to 1200 bottles each. It was a family affair; the grandfather having sold the larger winery some time ago, the brothers were now making wine on smaller scales. But with grand ambitions.

At the end of the tasting I asked him what their most interesting or funky wine was. He told me it was the magician. A red wine they had created a few years ago and discovered a natural effervescence that had occurred in the bottle. They no longer had that vintage but they had a rose that captured the same spirit. It was delicious and I bought some bottles to share with my cousins in August.

A large group had overtaken the main room and as I waited for people to buy bottles I walked around the nearby vines and fruit trees. The valley was overcast and I drew my jacket tight around me to shield me from the cold. I asked Gerardo whether the weather was always this different from Mendoza; he said it depends.

Our next stop was Bodega Piedra Negra, a much larger winery, bottling around 1.2 million bottles a season. Regina welcomed us, pouring each of us a glass of white wine before leading us out onto the patio to look over the fields. The overcast skies made for a grey view but the fall colors on the trees and vines were still beautiful and we drank in the view as we chatted with each other.

Regina then lead us into the winery and showed us where the wine was made. We walked on a catwalk above huge stainless steel tanks. Smaller concrete tanks hid in corners.

From there, she brought us downstairs to the cellar, where she showed us the barrels in which they age the wine and their library of bottles before bringing us to their tasting room overlooking the vines. Thinking of the bottles I had already purchased, I rounded out a case with a few from the winery, leaving a slot open in case I discovered something at the next stop.

Our final stop was the Bodega Monteviejo, where we were seated for lunch. The tasting consisted of the pairings with our four course meal. By then, I had lost the capacity to be discerning.

I sat next to Gerardo and we talked about wine and wine making. He makes his own with some friends and I asked about smaller funkier wineries. I told him I loved the fact that we had started with such a small bodega and asked if he ever did tours of just small-batch providers. It’s something I’d be interested in the next time I planned to visit.

Hearing that, he told me that he’d bring me a bottle of his wine. We exchanged contact info and he told me to text him the next day.

After lunch we took coffee on the roof deck of the winery. As I took photos of the surroundings two women held their glasses aloft and invited me to take their photo. It turns out they were from Buenos Aires. They asked if I danced tango. I had taken some lessons in the past, but had probably forgotten everything. They said they were taking lessons in Palermo and invited me to join them one Thursday. There was live music.

Soon it was time to go. Gerardo and Victor wanted to try and beat the traffic back to Mendoza. I slept in the back. By the time we were back in the city, it was dark and I was ready for bed, happily sated and looking forward to the rest of the week. 🍇