A day at the vineyards

We booked ourselves on a full day trip with Sunday dinner at the vineyards. The first place we went to was a traditional Bodega belonging to a Mendozian family who had been making wine for generations using the traditional methods. The building was made from mud and bricks and they grow their own grapes, fermenting them in concrete vats and then storing the wine in French Oak casks until it is ready for bottling. They do not use any artificial tannins or other chemicals to change the flavour of the wine, what you get is completely natural - It was called Bodega Benegas (owned by Mr Benegas Lynch)

This was some of the old machinery, he also collects ponchos

This is his living room where he entertains, the huge fireplace is where they cook the meat

The next place we went to was owned by the first woman in Argentine to qualify as a wine maker. She was born in Mendoza and learned her craft in Europe, then came back to Mendoza to start her wine making career. She is in her 60's now and her name is Susanna Balbo. Her winery makes Millions of bottles of wine and not only grows their own grapes, but also buys grapes from other small  dedicated vineyards to produce the millions of bottles that they require for their business. It has a different  more modern technique involving stainless steel fermenting tanks and French oak casks. They also add tannins and other chemicals to produce the flavour they require
We had a delicious Sunday dinner there including wine plus the wine tasting so by the end of the day we were very merry!