Mendoza biking and wine tasting without reserva; Hacked Emails

 I flew from Bariloche in  N. Patagonia to Mendoza in the central western part of Argentina hard up against the high central Andes.  Disembarking from the plane there were a lot  people holding signs but none had my name on them so I took an Uber to my BnB in Lujan just outside of the big city of  Mendoza and in the start of the large Mendoza wine region.  Ubers are, like many things, cheap here and it only cost me  $9 before tip for the roughly 30 minute ride.

The next day I rented a bike so that I could tour some of the many fairly close vineyards which range from very large ones that export wines worldwide to small family wineries.  Visiting vineyards in Argentina is a bit tricky as most require reservations and tours and these are not necessarily cheap (anywhere from 20,000 to 60,000 pesos).  The tours also can be a bit time consuming making it difficult to see more than one or two a day.  

In any case, I had emailed the bike shop several days ahead asking to rent a bike and if they might assist with some winery reservations.  In fact, as I got no response, I sent several emails to different addresses.   Of course, when I got to the bike shop they had never heard of me and then explained that while I was welcome to rent a bike, it would be difficult to get tours and tastings without reservations.  I then explained that I knew that and that was why I had emailed ahead.  "Ah" the senora said, their email had been ''hacked!' she just about shouted.  When I explained that I had sent another message through the website, she now shouted "HACKED!" somewhat angrily at me as if  I had done the hacking or at least should have known that their email had been HACKED and was useless.  

In any case, I set off with a bike map and vineyards circled where they would at least sell me a glass of wine.  Fortunately- very fortunately as biking on roads in Argentina is only for the very brave and very stupid/suicidal- almost the whole way was on a bike trail-

But there some interesting obstacles blocking the bike path-

An interesting thing about Argentina is the contrast between the ordinary buildings, houses and settings and the wineries.  As mentioned the housing stock is pretty mundane and often a bit run down and most buildings and villages have little charm about them, but the wineries are almost all set in manicured lawns and vineyards and their buildings beautiful in the Spanish style-

The wineries themselves are virtually always gleaming modern facilities-

Here is one winery where you lounge about on white pillows on a perfectly mowed lawn-

It almost had a feel of an estate set in Brideshead Revisited (I stood at the bar inside and would not partake of such a decedent setting where I would undoubtedly have fallen asleep for the afternoon).  

I visited 4 wineries on my bike and Somehow managed to finagle my way past the inflexible reservation system.  At the first winery, they told me that I could not do a tasting without the tour and I could not join a tour without a reservation, but I could buy a glass of wine.  I said I would buy a glass of wine, but wondered whether they could actually give me 3 small glasses of different wines that would add up to one full glass?  The first woman pondered this and decided it would not violate the 'no tasting without a tour or reservation policy" and I was able to use this model at the next 3 wineries (only one refused to see brilliance in this paradigm and insisted on the $20 tour/tasting.  We agreed to disagree on the definition of a “tasting”).  So no actual tastings, just many small glasses of wine and the tasting fees ranged from $7 to $0 (the last winery said they were closed for the day, but then after chatting with me for a bit gave me a couple of wines to taste on the house).

It turned out to be a fun and informative day with the different wines ranging from really good to pedestrian.  Interestingly at one winery-- Alta Vista- they gave me a taste of their premier $100 bottle gratis, but I found it not as enjoyable at present as the single vineyard wine I had tasted earlier (both malbecs).  I think it was not ready to drink yet, though clearly had great potential.  

The biking  was mostly flat and I probably cycled about 27km which seemed pretty easy.  The bike shop told me they took a siesta from 2-4 so I had to return the bike during their awake but pre-dinner window from 4-6pm, which I did.  I didn't mention anything about emails when I dropped off the bike.