The best laid plans, it is said, are apt to go awry and our first night in Buenos Aires falls foul of a long delay changing aircraft at Santiago. We arrive at the airport in BA just in time to check in for the next morning’s flight to Mendoza. We have travelled business and have a pile of warm clothing and equipment for Antarctica which was going to be left at our hotel to be picked up before our flight south. Now boarding a domestic cheap flight we have to madly rearrange our stuff, wear heavy clothing and load our hand luggage to the max. Amazingly we are only 3kgs over our allocation and are waved through without extra charge.
Arrival to our resort set among the vineyards with the Andes as a backdrop is a balm to the hassles of the night before, stuck at the airport unsure of when we would get here.
The preorganised midday booking for lunch at Bodega Lagarde is a sumptuous seven course degustation menu with matching wines alfresco among the vines and the ever present Andes mountains. This was one of many brilliant fine dining experiences which cost about a quarter of what they would back home. Truly decadent.
A word on the wines here. They are a real surprise packet! We went wine tasting while here and there are some really professional operations and facilities here and the wines are high quality at a price tag, once again a quarter of what a comparable wine would cost in Australia. The flagship grape is Malbec and I tasted a number of great wines that I only wish I could have ordered and sent home to my cellar.
