שפונדרה

I woke up early and arrived in Maipú by 9 o'clock in the morning. I said my "Buenas diás." to Hugo as I also asked for my personal bicycle. I said goodbye and started peddling south on my usual route. According to my map it was more than 40 km to my first winery of the day. Because I was already 45 minutes late for my first reservation I decided to continue on to my second. I passed the winery that I had my third reservation that day as well. All this time on San Martín Avenue, I finally took a right on Route 86 for about 9 more kilometers. I arrived at the winery at 11:45.

I walked into the main building of Bodega Pulenta Estate and into a clean white walled room. I walked over to the offices and introduced myself. Anna introduced herself as well and asked if I could wait for a few minutes. Of course I agreed and rested on a comfortable chair staring at their display of wooden wine boxes. Anna ushered me outside with a bottle

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I woke up real early and walked over to Mendoza's central bus station. I caught the 6 o'clock bus to San Rafael, Mendoza's southernmost wine region. I arrived in San Rafael by 9 in the morning and went directly to the tourist information center. They were really helpful. I continued walking along Hipolito Yrigoyesn Avenue until I saw a sign for the winery I was looking for.

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We woke up at a reasonable hour and started walking from San Carlos to Eugenio Bustos, across Route 40. Our first destination was within walking distance. Before we arrived at the winery we stopped to have a cup of coffee at a local coffee shop. This is the kind of coffee shop that you see in the movies, old men sipping at their steaming hot coffee talking it up with the owner and coffee maker. I love it. Without asking, we received a plate full of small pastries. Not only are these people good and generous, I also think part of the reason for all this generosity is that they just don't get many tourists here. This kind of place just makes me want to walk into more small local places than the usual tourist hot spots.

We arrived at the guard post of Finca La Celia and were given guest tags to wear around our necks. Leonor greeted us with a mighty handshake. She gave us a small tour of the grounds as well as explaining about the special wine making machine that produces the winery's kosher wine.  After the tour we went into the wine tasting room. A simple looking room with loads of wine bottles, such a beautiful sight. We tasted 2 wines, a Chardonnay 2007 and a Malbec 2006. The Chardonnay had a great golden color with exotic flavors of peach, apricot and grapes. The Malbec had berry and cinnamon aromas with an oaky dry aftertaste. Both wines were just good.  At the end I offered Leonor to trade the bottle opener, but the minute Tim said that I was collecting them, she just gave it to me (my 11^th). What a great woman. We expressed our gratitude and walked to the end of España Avenue. We turned right on Los Indios and started walking. After a lot of walking and some hitch hiking we finally arrived at our destination.

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