Red Red Wine

My flight of wine and cheese & crackers - a perfect lunch!
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Argentina is known for its steak and wine, and as I've already eaten more amazing steak than i've ever had in my life, it was time to hit the wine (trail)!

Mendoza is the big wine area on the west side near the Andes and border with Chile, so another bus later and I'm in Lao Hostel in the city.

By the sixth bodega, I was pretty happy

Riding along the leafy lane, still in a straight line at this point
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A couple of days after arriving I took a bus out to the vineyards and hired a bike to tour the bodegas. It's not exactly a 'Sideways' experience, peddling through the vineyeards, most of them are along a busy main road and it was a job sometimes to stay on my battered mountain bike while trucks thundered past.

A stop for a shameless self portrait against the vines
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But at least it was flat going and the first bodega, La Rural which makes San Fellipe wine, had a good little wine museum and gave a little tour of the old and new sides of the winery for free, plus of course a try of a wine.

And so it went on, following the little map and stopping at the different bodegas for a tour and a try of one three or even five different wines for 10-15 pesos each (about pounds 1.50 to 2.50 a go!)  I even had lunch of sorts at one, a selection of cheeses and crackers to go with my 'flight' of three diffrent wines.

The snow-peaked Andes overlooking the vines
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Further along the road got much nicer, all tree-lined with my first glimpse of the snow-toppped Andes to one side, and I kept having to look at the mountains to check that the snow wasn't clouds because it was so high.

As you can imagine, by the sixth bodega, with the sun on my face, I was pretty happy, but then had the ride all the wa back to drop off the bike. So back I wobbled, not helped all day by a saddle that kept slipping back and forcing me to cling on with my arse over every lump and bump in the road.

I slept well that night.