Lunch under the trees: Feb 5th

We  found a sweet little vineyard off a gravelly road in Mendoza that offered lunch and tastings. Perfect.

While Ale did his wine thing, Sofia and I cooled off under a huge tree among the vineyards where tables and chairs had been set up to serve a yummy lunch. Calm, quiet and out of the sun.

The earth here is so so very dry, the ground between the vineyards needs to be ploughed and flooded once a week to irrigrate the plants. Hence the presence of an old farmer with his work horse and plough. Who knew this old farming method still existed?! As Sofia patted the horse, I asked what his name was. The farmer simply shrugged his shoulders and said 'no name'. Poor work horse!

The land in Mendoza/Maipu is so incredibly dry and the flooding of the vineyards with the water from The Andes is common practice. Dry, hot, gravelly, dusty, dotted with patches of green. The cellars and houses are simple with nothing grandiose like you'd see in Europe. The roads are very basic and the signage scarce. Perhaps all their attention has been focussed on making wonderful Malbec.....which is never a bad thing :).