Cruising Around Wine Country

So far, so... SO good! Ryan and I spent the day touring around Mendoza and the surrounding area wine tasting at various wineries. I know the last posting made it sound like we were going to be hammered by noon but that was not the case (believe it or not). If you have been to the Napa Valley in California, you know that the wineries are plentiful and that they are situated very close together. You could easily spend a weekend there and hit 40 wineries with many to spare. Here in Mendoza, not so much. Tomorrow for example, the first winery we are slated to go to is 100 km. away. So today, we went to four wineries and tomorrow, we are going to be seeing three. Being at the wineries today was really interesting. Below are two pictures from a tour we took. The first picture is our guide showing us a porthole into a 22,000 gallon concrete tank that they hold the wine in before they transfer it to oak barrels. The second picture is the side view of the tanks we were sitting on. Though they were massive holdings, they are considered average size. I can't really give you more information on the specifics because I started tuning the guide out and envisioning myself doing a cannonball into that tank before the guide closed the lid.
One of the wine tours today also included lunch and it was just what we needed. Another "quick lunch" which included (as all meals here seem to include) a 1 lb. steak. Lunch consisted of 5 different courses but it wasn't because the food was spectacular and created by a gourmet chef. The courses were an excuse to offer wine pairings in order to sell you bottles once lunch was over. As the waitress poured our sample of Malbec for the final course, my glass seemed to get a splash more than Ryan's. This seemed to be happening every time the wine was poured. This did not go over well with Dr. "Name removed, patient's could google and find me here". Here was his reaction every time this happened (oh, and maybe if the picture blows up big enough when you open the picture, you'll be able to see his wine moustache):
Our driver is pretty hilarious. He thinks he speaks English really well. We pretend to understand him. Occasionally the planets align and everyone is understanding what the other is saying but so far this hasn't worked out very well. We were surprised to see a Wal-Mart here and I tried explaining that Vancouver wouldn't allow the company to build in our city. Ryan made fun of me for it later... and rightly slow. It was clear that the conversation was going nowhere fast. However, I wasn't the only one that was making an ass of myself. Ryan started out our morning by looking at the driver with widening eyes, listened for about three minutes, waited for the long uncomfortable pause and said "This is a busy little place you have here." Translates really easily for someone struggling with the language. We have the same guy tomorrow so we'll see how we do.