Yes, last night,( well late afternoon, while I was still I Mendoza Argentina) I took myself off to The Hyatt Park Hotel to sample what has been descibed as ¨The Worlds Best Malbec¨And let me tell you, it was pretty damn good! I had been doing a bit of research and came across this vineyard called Monte Cinco in Lujan Mendoza, I contacted them about going there and having a tasting, well as this was the holidays, (Bicentanario) it meant everything was closed and there were Big celebrations everywhere! It was great to see, I was first in BA and the place was buzzing on the main street, everything cordoned off, all types of bands from tradional to brass, floats, costumes, huge balloons, food stalls representing culinary delights from all over the world. Popcorn, bright pink candy floss, people in old traditional dress, singers crooning all over the place & basically celebrating anyting and everything that has emerged from Argentina in the last 200 yrs. So so so many people, wow! ooh and great fire works in Mendoza.
Anyway, I was lucky to be there at this time and it rounded off my time in Argentina nicely, but, back to the wine.
So, after a few emails back and forth, I head out to the Hyatt to sample some wines, anyway, I turn up, looking quite snazzy in my LBD and the lady says that the man, Arturo his name is, the man who owns Monte Cinco Vineyard had been there and left but she rang him and he said yes crack open Said wine and let me have a try, and the rest of the bottle it seemed... so there I am sipping away, sampling the delights, getting the low down from Emilia the wine buff, who then says Arturo is heading back into town to come say hello and share a glass of his wine with me.
Great, im looking over wines, sampling one or 2 others, drinking this really tasty Malbec, which almost tastes differnt everytime I take a fresh swig mmm mmm. Then, there is an English old man, well in his 50´s anyway, sitting at the end of the bar gettig stuck into a bottle of Mendozas finest Chardonay, now, usually I´m not partial to Chardonay, having only tried Ozzie ones I think, but, I did try one in Maipu a few weeks earlier when wine tasting with Becky and it was really tasty, oaky but with lovely deep buttery flavours, so I was being converted, anyway, he offers me a glass and says I simply have to try this creamy delicious buttery white, so I do, and its really good, a bit of small talk later, he´s from London, lives in Cambodia and owns a flat in Sydney, which as he´s never there has offered me to stay in, either if im on my own, or with boyfriend or friend, whichever, well, this could be great if maybe a bit strange but am thinking probably a bit odd, so wont bother. He´s getting a bit sozzled and I dont really want to sit with him anyway, so off I go back to my end of the bar and meet Arturo, hes a friendly old guy, we sit, share some of te Malbec together for 1.5hrs or so, he tells me all about his family buisness, its been going for 100yrs, making the wine, where he´s trying to export too etc etc, really quite intersting, but unfortunatly I dont have a picture as I didnt take my camera along. think he wished I could introduce his wine to the English market in some way, if only! So I round off the evening by choosing some great wines for you lovely family to enjoy in a few yrs once they have gotten even better in flavour by ageing and off I toddle back to my hostel, the slightly glamourous evening is over and I go back to my dorm room with bunk bed.
LBD? The Hyatt Hotel??? There was me thinking you were travelling round with a backpack! Sounds positively SATC to me!!! Which when all is said and done is very good timing as it is the London premiere this week.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, what a fabulous evening! We are in Blackpool this weekend so your mum has bought some Mendoza Malbec for us to share and toast you with!
Happy drinking!
xxx