To start the year we headed to Mendoza, the wonderful wine-growing region in Argentina. The Malbec grape, which is grown and wined here at the foot of the Andes, is very famous. As always, we started from Colonia del Sacramento, entered Argentina via Rosario and after a stop in Rio Cuarto we made it to Mendoza despite various layers of clouds and only rudimentary weather information. Through the local Aero Club we found the beautiful Hotel Cervantes in the middle of town and the boutique Bodega Durigutti for wine tasting. Hotel owner and enologist are both pilots in the Aero Club. Our return flight was shorter than expected because we still couldn’t get north because of the weather, where we wanted to see Cordoba. We used the extra time to fly a little tour through Uruguay. In the east we visited the Los Matreros farm, where we were able to observe many animals. And we were in the west in time to visit the international jazz festival in Mercedes. Every year, visitors can enjoy a wide variety of live jazz music. Finally, in Carmelo we did a guided trip at an Uruguayan bodega. The wineries here are much smaller than in Argentina, but the quality of the wines, especially the red wine Tannat, can certainly keep up.
