Vendemia (wine pandamonium)
This city is chock full of outdoor cafes, restos, bars, etc. It is clearly nirvana for a lot of tourists but is full of locals out enjoying it all. Very much influenced by the Italians as well as the Spanish, they have wonderful arrays of food, drinks, bars, gelaterias, patisseries, bakeries. I can see controlling the waistline is going to be tough.
A few blocks from the hotel we find a nice pizza/beer/salad place ($35 for dinner) We still have to take the leftover salad home for supper later, with the lovely smoked salmon and trout we have bought at the fish market here, miles from any oceans!
Our second night here Ted is ready for the street scene tasting, called Vendemia. As it’s the second night, and apparently the last, everyone is pouring generously. You buy a book of tickets (6 for classic wines, 4 for reserves) and get a glass. Half the winemakers don’t bother to stamp your card.
Young and old are out strolling with their glasses, the open bars are pounding out music full till and it’s what you imagine at a wine fest, except in Canada the police would be all over you out in force. There is a lot of security, but we don’t have the slightest concern for our safety, nor does anyone else. Families are out with their kids, who are holding dad’s glass, etc.
Ted enjoys talking wine with lots of them in his broken Spanglish. We are doing quite well in Spanish now too. But we lack the words of finesse to really talk about wines. The big guys have sent out the beautiful people to pour for them.
For A$60 you can buy 3 hot empanadas, the ubiquitous hand pies, usually meat here in Argentina. About $2 each. As the evening progresses, it is 6 for 100 (C$7) - they are absolutely delicious for lining the stomach for a drinking bout.
A few blocks away by the central Plaza Independencia, the local pols are speechifying, thee is dancing, singing, rousing national anthems. We are keeping our British heritage quiet here, just Incase the words Falkland Islands come up...They like Canadians.
Ted’s View: The wines so far: Good value tasting of some medal-winning wines. He’s happy. I’m happy.
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