Amanda Barnes

Tag: mendoza

  • 36 hours in Mendoza: Minding your pesos

    Written for 36hrs.in

    It’s certainly true that Argentina is not the bargain it used to be. Money smart travellers rushed here in their droves following the big economic crash of 2001 when it was cheaper to buy a litre of beer here than a pack of chewing gum back at home. However after 10 years and spiraling inflation, it isn’t the cheap as chips destination of years past. You can however still discover this wonderful city while minding your pesos.

    Friday

    4:00pm

    Get your bearings on this city by wandering the plazas: Italia, Espana, Chile, San Martin and the biggie – Plaza Independencia. Not only are they nice to look at and loll around in, but the plaza’s all tell part of the country’s history with monuments of independence battles and immigration influences. The plazas are strategically placed as meeting points in case of an earthquake, like the one in in 1861 that completely flattened the city. Rest assured though – buildings are all earthquake proof now.

    Photo credit: David Hellekalek

    6:00pm

    Argentineans must come second only to Italians for their love of ice-cream, and the helados (ice cream) here are a matter of national pride. Get your lips around an ice-cream stuffed cone from premier Mendoza chain Ferruccio Soppelsa (Belgrano 1092) for their Malbec and Torrontes flavours, or Bianca y Nero (Aristides Villanueva 144) for their seriously chocolate-y flavours. Don’t miss out on trying Super Dulce de Leche ice cream either.

    Photo credit: tripadvisor

    9:00pm

    There’s nothing more Argentine than tango, and every Friday in the Summer months a crowd of tango aficionados gather outside in Plazoleta Vergara and entice each other and onlookers to fall in love with this passionate, truly Argentine dance.

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  • Interview with Laura Catena

    Laura Catena is an emergency room doctor in San Francisco. She is also a fourth-generation winemaker from a family credited with revolutionizing Argentinian wine – Bodega Catena Zapata’s flagship label, Nicolás Catena Zapata, was the first wine from Argentina to score a Robert Parker 98+.

    How did you first fall in love with wine?

    When my father was starting this whole revolution with Argentine wine in the ’80s and I was going to school in the United States [Harvard and Stanford]. My father used to visit me and one of our traditions was to go to really nice restaurants. His objective was to make Argentine wines that could stand with the rest of the world, so we had to try the best wines on the list. I became a wine snob rather quickly. That’s really how I started: sitting and having these incredible conversations with my father over wine.

    Is great wine made in the vineyard or the winery?

    Definitely in the vineyard. There’s no way you can make a great wine without a great vineyard. Impossible. However, you can ruin a great vineyard by making a bad wine. I think both are important, but without the great vineyard, there isn’t a great wine.

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  • Malbec vs Cot

    malbec_vs_ct_smallMalbec made Argentine wine famous, but its true French roots are lesser known on this side of the Atlantic. Amanda Barnes goes in search of the original Malbec – in Cahors, France before indulging in a luxury tour of its adopted home here in Mendoza. **Article taken from Wine Republic

    The French Connection

    Coming from Argentina, the first thing that really strikes you about Cahors is how green it is. Emerald green fields run into sloping lime green lawns with brooding pine green forests above –this is a very lush landscape. And typically on the day we arrive, it’s raining.

    Nestled in the middle of Southern France, almost equidistant between France’s two coast lines, the Lot region has a privileged position in the heart of food and wine country between Bordeaux and Provence. So it is no surprise that the local gastronomy is one of the main attractions for visitors of Cahors, as well as the stunning medieval architecture, multitudes of resplendent and crumbling chateaus and a host of outdoor activities.

    Arriving at the peak of summer, the city centre is a hub of activity (when the sun eventually does come out) with people wandering the walled medieval town, meandering alongside the river, gawking at France’s best preserved medieval bridge, and indulging in the local cuisine. This is the land of foie gras, duck, truffles and saffron; it would be easy to just spend a week here eating but as much as my stomach would like otherwise – I came to Cahors not just to glut but to get out and see where Malbec came from.

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