Imagine a flat countryside, roads shaded by lines of gorgeous trees and fancy vineyards tauting beautiful grapes and an even more stunning setting in the valley. Now imagine biking from vineyard to vineyard on a bike, receiving generous tastings and tours at each over the course of 7 hours. Welcome to Lujan (right outside of Mendoza) and the Bacchus Bike and Wine Tour - how Jed and I spent our first full day in Mendoza.
The day was lovely and our group for the tour even better - Maeve and Shane (an Irish couple whom we had shared a room with in El Chalten), Simon (the Brit), and Becca and Holly (two awesome girls from British Columbia). A bunch of us from the hostel had gone out for steaks and wine the night before, ending in drunken debauchery of sorts, and I wasn´t quite prepared for drinking wine so early in the morning. But the ride was easy, and the wine tours informative and fun. In total we visited 4, including a stop for lunch: Alta Vista (wonderful premium Malbec!), Weingart (not a huge fan... my favorite was their non-alcoholic grape juice), Cerro Chacras (delicious lunch stop, wine included) and Pullmary, a small, organic vineyard.
Practical Information: Wine tours are a must if you´re going to Mendoza, and you have two options when it comes to the bike tours. Going to Maipu or doing what we did, going to Lujan. Both are probably about the same distance from Mendoza (40minutes or so on public bus) The Maipu tours are full of drunken backpackers, offering a large quantity but shitty quality of wine. Lujan offers nicer wines and super small groups, but you won´t get as drunk as the first option. Since, I did the Lujan Bacchus tour, I can offer better information on that. To get to the Bacchus wine tour office in Chacras, you need to take a public bus (#1, sub division 15, 16 to Chacras) and get off at Chacras Plaza. From there the office is right around the corner. The bus costs 1.80 and only accepts change. Bacchus will charge 35 pesos for a full day bike rental, and they arrange all the tours for you prior to beginning. (You must book your tour the day before!) Upon arrival, they´ll give you the bike as well as a map, outlined with your tour times. You then pay each winery, as well as whatever you order for lunch. Winery tours and tastings run 10-35 pesos each, and lunch is about 65 pesos unless you do their pasta option for 30pesos. With a good lunch, plan to spend about 150-170 pesos on the entire day.
I do know this was a very interesting post thanks for writing it! Many thanks for taking the time to discuss this.
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