Bad start to our stay in Mendoza. The 17 hour bus journey was actually pretty comfortable (although the food was practically inedible - bread and more bread!) but about an hour after getting to our hostel Ben realised he'd left his iPad on the bus...and it's been pouring with rain all day so not a great day. Spent half of it trying to get the iPad back (no chance) and then things took a turn for the better over dinner as we found Cordillera Vinos y Fuego. An amazing parilla restaurant where the owner took us into the wine cellar to choose our wine (their version of a wine list!). We ordered the mixed parilla grill of flank and skirt steak, blood sausage, chorizo and some other meats - it was aaaamazing! The best meat we've had so far! (I know I keep saying that but this time it was absolutely the best). We also tried Chimmichurri which is popular out here - it's just garlic,herbs and oil mixed together, I could make that at home. But the meat was delicious, we talked about it all the way back to our hostel.
Thursday was beautiful sunshine and clear skies - hurrah! And thank god because the whole reason we came to Mendoza was to go on a wine tour and it would be so miserable in the rain. We caught a taxi to Maipu about 15km outside of Mendoza which is the wine region and picked up 2 bikes from Mr Hugo who was very friendly, jabbered away to us in Spanish,gave us a map, a couple of recommendations and sent us on our way. The vineyards and wineries are all set off a main road that runs for 10km. We headed to the nearest first where we got 5 tastings and a couple of empanadas each from a very friendly bloke who even gave us a try of his home made dessert wine - very nice! Next we headed to a family run vineyard where we tried 6 wines but didn't rate them much (see notes below) Also we were quite pissed by this point having had no breakfast and 5 glasses of wine each by 1pm! So we headed to a vineyard called Tempus Albus for lunch on their terrace overlooking the vineyard. We also had a little toast to us over lunch as today is our 6 year anniversary! Can we still celebrate this now we're married? I think so. From there we visited a vineyard called Mavi and had 3 more Malbec tastings and a cheeseboard. Most of the wines in this area are Malbecs or Cab Sav's. Our final stop was at a chocolate and olive oil shop where we tried various olive oils, jams, chocolates and flavoured liquors - by far my favourite stop of the day! We met some Israelis there who have just started a 6 month trip, they were nice. Also shared a taxi back into Mendoza with a couple of Dutch guys, was nice to talk to some other people for a change! Back in Mendoza we boarded an overnight bus at 10pm to Valpairaso in Chile.

Ben kept notes whilst we were wine tasting, here's what he wrote:

1. Plum and cherries, 2014, med bod, 13.6 - 5
2. Slightly vinegary, 2013, 13.6 - 4
3. Organic, cleaner, lighter, 13.4 - 6.5
4. Half French (berries) oak half American oak (choc and vanilla) then mixed, 14.0 - 7
5. Half French oak, chov and van, cherries, 14.8, - 8

Villavicencio
6. 2012 manure, 4
7. 2011, same same, 4
8. Cab sav, crap - 4.5
9. Smells of nothing, slightly fruitier, 5
10. Kitty says no manure - result! Oaky, all the mines are mingling together in her mouth - she doesn't care. Just give her more - 6
11. Sparkly, mixing it up, smells like...teen spirit. She doesn't know (again). Smells like booze apparently.
12/13. Tempus Alba - kit had tempranillo, I went for the good stuff - Tempus Pleno. Mine's better (...and double the price). We're having lunch... Thank god.
14. I had a burger, kit had chicken over much needed lunch. We're now at the next bodega and have ordered the 3 flight tasting. And a cheeseboard. Yeah that's right. A bloody chessboard. Malbec reserva, kit likes it, I like it - 7.5
15. Cab reserva, need to stop taking notes as kit's eating all the cheese. Oaky AF - 6.5
16. Syrah reserva, that's the hit of the whole fruit. She's getting leather and coffee , she has zero taste buds. She's now resorted to reading the own vin yards notes back to me. Violent tones - 7.5