Wine, Please — twotakeflight

Anushka here! Here’s my guide to turning 30:

Step 1 - Hop on a plane to wine country with a tiny bottle of champagne in hand.
Step 2 - Arrive in wine country and live in a very “on-theme” gigantic wine barrel.
Step 3 - Refine your now very mature palette by trying many (many many) wines in beautiful vineyards across the city
Step 4 - Repeat Step 3 over the course of the next few days.

We went to Mendoza from Uruguay to celebrate my 30th birthday. With its cool nights, sunny dry days, and sharp mountain peaks in the background, Mendoza reminded me a lot of Colorado. The familiarity of space with a side of wine made me feel right at home in the city.

Since coming to Mendoza was for a special occasion, we splurged and stayed in our first nice hotel, Villa Mansa. At Villa Mansa our room was made to look like a giant wine barrel and was stationed in front of vines ripe for the picking. While our accommodation was luxurious and a nice break from hostel life, the best part of Villa Mansa was the onsite puppies. That’s right. Adorable dogs roamed the property making friends with all the guests by the pool.

*Living in life-size wine barrels at Villa Mansa*

We spent our first full day in Mendoza exploring the vineyards of The Vines in Uco Valley. The Vines is an incredibly gorgeous space open for anyone to buy a plot of land (or a whole vineyard) and make small batches of their own custom wine with the help of their onsite winemakers. It’s such an incredibly special and endearing concept, especially after several glasses of wine, that you find yourself actually thinking about purchasing a vineyard and dabbling in the winemaking game. Then you realize, you are only 30 and have already spent your money living in a wine barrel - not making them.

*Hubby daydreaming about our own vineyard at the Vines…*

With the help of our guide (who literally picked us up in a van called the Winebulance), we went to our first vineyard in The Vines called Corazon del Sol. Corazon del Sol is owned by an Indian doctor from Texas (proving that Indians are really everywhere and most are doctors) and is one of the few vineyards in The Vines to have their own winemaking facility on site. We took a tour of the facility and sampled several glasses of Malbec and Malbec blends, and immediately got the business card of our hostess, Cristina, so we could order cases for ourselves back home.

*Winebulance, take us to Corazon del Sol, stat!*

Our next stop was at another boutique vineyard called Solo Contigo, followed by the most delicious lunch at Frances Mallman’s Siete Fuegos. If you are looking to eat a delicious meal at a world class chef’s restaurant, I would highly recommend this place. The view was breathtaking. The food was amazing. The wine was delicious.

To break up the wine tasting we also went olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting at Olivicola LAUR. It was a random experience but actually pretty fun and pretty tasty. Fun fact: green and black olives are the same type of olive, just at different stages of ripeness. I know. Mind. Blown.

*From grapes to olives at the Laur Olive Farm*

Our final meal and wine flight was at El Enemigo. Honestly, their Gran Enemigo 2014 was just so delicious that I can’t remember any other wines we tried there. The ambiance, three-course lunch, and wine pairing definitely made El Enemigo a memorable experience. I would say a boozy lunch there is a must-do if your find yourself in Mendoza.

*Wines at El Enemigo. The grounds itself are unique compared to other vineyards, and worth touring around.*

Mendoza has a lot more to offer other than wine - even though we didn’t fully take advantage of it. The city itself has a good amount of restaurants and parks as well as tons of hiking since the Andes are right around the corner. We dabbled in wandering the city a bit when we weren’t gulping wine, but honestly we didn’t get the opportunity to really explore it.