San Rafael

Monday 4th April 2011
Arriving at 6am into San Rafael bus station, we headed for the hotel and were lucky enough to get into our room. In truth, most of the hotel was empty, but we were glad of the bed. For some reason we felt pretty wiped out so we decided to get a couple of hours sleep. This turned into 4 and so it was lunchtime by the time we felt up to anything.

The guidebook paints San Rafeal as a busy modern city, with streets lines with Sycamore trees. It suggests that you should wander around, grab some shade, a cafe and watch the world go by. So we did. We found an old bar filled with elderly gentlemen playing dominoes. James was desperate to join in but felt it rude to abandon Emma on the pavement.

Observations:
Bikes: This place is very bike friendly and there are loads around. A weird sight is seeing someone standing up on the back whilst moving along. It puts 'backies' in the UK to shame and is even valid transport for a mother and young daughter. Obviously there's not a helmet in sight.

San Martin

Gaseosas: Sitting by the plaza San Martin (Bolivar's partner in crime from the south) it seems that after school, kids pile into a kiosk and return to the park with a large bottle of their favourite pop and a few cups. They quickly see this off with their friends. Wired on sugar we assume they head home to do their homework. It strikes us as a very civilised way for 15 year olds to spend their time.

Tuesday 5th April 2011
Bodegas were the reason we stopped in San Rafael. With several bodegas around town, it is a perfect place to hire a bike and get tasting.

The private cellar.

With our bikes firmly beneath us, we cycled 6km out to what would be the most impressive tour and wine tasting of the day. Casa Bianchi is a vineyard started around 100 years ago by an Italian chap and today it's run by his 5th son, who's 85 and visits every day. Their flagship product is a sparkling white (they aren't allowed to call it Champagne but it is) and this won a prize in France in 2008. We were presented with a glass each to taste at the end and it was delicious, better than some champagnes we've had. Or maybe it was the sun, holiday and drinking at 11am that helped the taste. The tasting was preceeded by an excellent tour in English, during which we were able to visit the personal cellar of the family, housing a private collection of over 15000 wines. The 6 legs on the table in the middle of the room represented the 6 children of the founder. The UK is their biggest export market so we hope to track some down on our return.

An early glass.

Just down the road was Murville, a smaller and more traditional vineyard. The interesting thing here was seeing the start of the process up close (with wasps everywhere) and witnessing the fermentation.

James in the olive grove.

With lunchtime looming, and the bodegas closing for two hours, we hit our jackpot of the day. In amongst the vineyards is an olive oil factory, Yancanelo. We had to pay a small amount for the hour tour, but we more than got our money's worth. As well as a very informative tour through the factory and adjoining olive groves, we were presented with a magnificent spread of the company's products. This was in effect lunch. The tastings included the expected oil and bread, as well as balsamic vinegar, two types of olive, olive paste, aubergine, artichoke hearts, asparagus and some cocktail cherries. It was of course accompanied by a glass of the house Malbec and was one of the best lunches of the entire trip, helped by the surrounding olive groves and beautiful blue sky.

Lunch, what a spread!

The afternoon was never going to surpass the morning, but we managed one more tasting before heading back to drop off our bikes. The last 4km was slightly blighted by a puncture in James' tyre. The freshly cut grass here is particularly spiky and mountain bike tyres do not survive.