Friday in Mendoza- Wines and Liquers

On Friday, we woke up early for a Bikes and Wines tour of the vineyard. Bikes and Wines is one of the many bike rental places that offer maps and information about the vineyard in the area. It seems like a fun idea at first and very romantic, but actually the concept of riding bikes and imbibing (obviously without a helmet) is quite irresponsible! We had a good time though. We met Louise, a woman from London, and Sherwin, a man from South Africa and the four of us biked around together. http://www.bikesandwines.com/index2EN.html
We started at La Rural, a vineyard and wine museum. We learned about the wine making process and tried some decent free wine.
Next, we biked along a scary route to Viña del Cerno, a lovely winery. There, Jamila and I tried a four-wine sample of an espumosa (champagne), young malbec (Argentina's signature wine), older malbec and a cabernet sauvignon. I could really taste the difference between the two malbecs and they were all delicious!
After visiting the vineyard, we biked to another vineyard/garden restaurant, where we began one of the best meals of my life at Almacen del Sur. We began with incredible bread with some yummy spreads: red pepper paste, grilled eggplants, mix of almonds and arugula, vegetable spread and cream cheese. Then, we ate a crisp salad with nice croutons. Next, delicious chicken wings and creamy onion dip, and some Malbec. For our main course, Jamila and I shared a tray of amazing food: lamb pies with eggplant and mint garnish, prawns with garlic stems, homegrown red peppers stuffed with hake, pork ribs and green tomato chutney and croquants of potato and cheese. For dessert, which I could barely eat, I ate an apple crisp with ice cream. It was fresh, delicious, and so motivating!!!
After lunch, we biked to Historias y Sabores, a chocolate and liquor place. We tried different sweets and savories and then went on our way.
It was an exhausting day but so much fun in the end! We ate and drank really well!

A note: Bikes and Wines is the most popoular company, and it's a bit more expensive. Our roommate Clement found Maipú Bikes, a new company right along the main drag (Urquiza and Carril Gómez) that is inexpensive and provides good bikes and even helmets! He asked that we mention it on our blog! The phone number is (0261) 4973311 and the email is maipubikes@gmail.com.