The Wonderful World of Wine

“El vino es la sangre que fluye por mi propia tierra.”  

Wine is the blood that flows through my land.

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Wine is everything to the people of Mendoza. The cultivation of grapes and the making of wine is the foundation upon which this entire city operates – a bad grape harvest would be absolutely detrimental to both the economy and the culture of this great city. Most Americans are oblivious to this fact, but Argentina is the 6^th largest wine producing country in the world behind Italy, France, Spain, Australia and the United States. This is even more impressive when you consider the fact that over 2/3 of all Argentinean wine is produced in the Mendoza providence.  That means that ONE providence in Argentina is producing almost two-thirds of the amount of wine that the entire country of the United States. Pretty impressive. Want another fun fact about Argentinean wine? Mendoza has over 300 sunny days per year and of those 65 that are cloudy, very, very, very few actually rain. Due to the combination of the arid climate, the Andes Mountains, and the type of grapes typically found here, Argentina boasts some of the most potent and darkest colored wine grapes in the world. The color of wine comes from the skin of the grape, and because of this most Argentinean wines are much darker than what we normally see from European or American wines. In fact, some Malbec’s and Cabernet Sauvignon’s here are dark in color that they appear black unless held up to a very, very bright light.  Also, because of the potency of the grapes and the amount of sugar contained within them, Argentinean wine ends up being the most naturally alcohol wine in the world. Most wines from this area end up at about 15-18% alcohol which is a much, much higher average than any other wine producing areas.

This is starting to sound like a history lesson. I will desist with the detailed description of Argentinean wine – if you wish to know more feel free to hit up Wikipedia or, if you feel so inclined, the city of Mendoza tourism and culture website which I have found extremely interesting.

Anyway, because of the immense importance of wine in Mendoza, the Vindimia (harvest festival) has been celebrated every fall for generations upon generations dating back before colonial times; its main purpose is to give thanks for, and bless, this year’s crop of grapes prior to harvesting them for wine.  The festivals start months before the harvest, in the beginning of the summer, where each area of the Mendoza providence elects a queen to compete for the honor of becoming the Queen of the Vindimia. This queen was traditionally always a daughter of a family bodega, someone who knew wine intimately and could act as a spokesperson and ambassador for the Mendoza region on an international level. In today’s age however, they are a lot more lenient – the most important qualification is beauty rather than an intimate knowledge of wine.

The queens, once elected, travel to the city of Mendoza to take part in a parade, La Bia Blanca, where they will attempt to win the hearts of the Mendocino people and win the votes of the 250 important members of the city (mayors, board members, professors, rich people, etc.) whose votes will determine which queen will represent the providence of Mendoza internationally as the Reina de la Vindimia. This is what the parade is SUPPOSED to be, however the mendocinos really only go to the parade for one reason: fruit and wine. Instead of throwing candy at people, the queens hand out bottles of wine from wineries in their sector (yes, WHOLE bottles of wine) and throw fruit at the mendocinan people. And yes, I literally mean that the queens are throwing fruit at people – anything from grapes and plums to peaches, nectarines, bananas, and melons. Yes, I said melons. There was an unfortunate incident with a melon a few years ago when an American student made the mistake of turning her back to the float…

Rule #1 of the Bia Blanca parade: never turn your back to the parade because if you do, that’s when one of the queens will decide to throw a melon.

There are plenty of other activities that occur during La festival de la Vindimia, but to save time and keep from boring you all, I’ll skip ahead to the culmination of the festival: the show. The best way I can describe this event is as follows: picture an opening act to the Olympics… now multiply it by 5. Yeah, it’s that elaborate. Historically, this show was a way in which all of the sectors of the Mendoza providence could get together and celebrate the one thing everyone has in common. Today however, this show is used as a remembrance for the history and culture of wine making in Mendoza as well as a being a symbolic representation of the significance of wine to the economy and the people. This was an incredibly moving experience and, although I did not fully understand all of the political symbolism and historical references of the various dances, I was able to get a short but beautiful summary of Mendoza’s cultural history with wine. Pictures below. 

Music and Mountains

Music seems to be a vital part of life for any Mendocino – there is ALWAYS some kind of concert or festival playing music in one of the many plazas throughout the city. I fall asleep to different music being played the nearest plaza every night. As I mentioned earlier, there is a very strong Italian influence here and because of this Mendocinos just recently celebrated their Italian heritage with a 3 day Fiesta de Italia. Basically, this consisted of three days of listening to Italian music, dancing Argentine and Italian dances, drinking wine and eating pizza. Needless to say, it was quite fun, and the music was absolutely phenomenal. 

Speaking of music, my host mom Graciela took me to an opera concert the other night which was FANTASTIC. I think even those of you who do not particularly like opera would've enjoyed and appreciated this concert. Granted I didn’t understand all of the lyrics because they were mostly in Italian and German, but one of the beauties of opera is that the lyrics are almost unnecessary. A talented opera singer can convey emotion and plot simply through their tone and facial features. 

Many people have inquired about the strong European influences I keep mentioning. One person (who will not be named) accused Argentina of not having their own culture and simply borrowing bits and pieces from various European countries. This is obviously false.  Yes, Argentina is heavily influenced by the Italians and the Spanish, but they still retain a very strong culture of their own. In Argentina’s past, after the initial vehemence and resentment of colonialism wore off, European customs, food, and music were desired because (from what I understand) they were seen as customs of the elite, rich class. Now, these customs are so much a part of Argentinian life that they aren't seen as European anymore, and instead have integrated with the local customs.  However, to this day the artistic communities seem to highly appreciate and prefer film, music, and art from Europe. When I made this observation to Graciela (who is very involved in the artistic community here), she verified it and said that the artistic community here absolutely loves to work with European material.

Enough about music, let’s talk about the Andes!! They are GORGEOUS and incredibly majestic; I can’t even begin to describe how happy it makes me to see a skyline of mountains instead of skyscrapers. Although most of the mountain range only has snow during the winter, there are a few peaks further south with snow that can barely be seen from Mendoza.  I can’t wait until April or May to see how beautiful they are going to be covered in snow.

We have quite a few adventurous students on this trip, so we got a group together to hike Cerro Arco, a mountain peak very close to Mendoza that has a hiking trail to the top. The path itself wasn’t too strenuous, but the heat made the hike pretty difficult. Of course we had to pick one of the hottest days that we’ve experience in Mendoza so far and the dry, arid climate only made it worse. We frequently had to take breaks in the shade and ran out of water much quicker than anticipated. However, the trials and struggles were worth it because the view at the top was phenomenal! 

                               

 

 

        

The Land of Passion, Love, and Sex

 Now that I have felt the flames of Argentinian passion, I don’t think I will ever be able to return to my old lifestyle; it’s as if the long-dormant fireworks of my heart and spirit have suddenly exploded before me in a shower of color (yes, I know that sounds cheesy but hear me out). Let me put this in a metaphor for you guys: Argentinians treat life as if it’s the finest, rarest, aged cognac that needs to be appreciated and enjoyed whereas Americans treat life as if it’s a warm, stale beer that has been sitting out overnight but might be worth choking down if you can manage it. Simply put, Americans don’t really know how to enjoy life – we live life, but as a people we generally don’t get as much excitement and enjoyment every day.

People in Argentina live for their passions and eagerly follow their hearts. Each moment of each day is to be cherished and enjoyed – whether you’re cooking for your family, walking home after work, listening to music, or dancing in the streets. Here, there’s no excuse to not be happy; if you want something, you go out and get it instead of sitting on your ass wishing that it would come to you like people in America. Work is secondary (unless of course your job is one of your passions) and family, friends, and fun always come first. The Argentinian youth especially embrace the “carpe diem” attitude and live almost solely for the moment. It’s definitely a refreshing change from America.

Also, I have to say… I like the staring and cat-calling, though at first it was a little unnerving and awkward. Even though all women in Argentina, local and tourist, outwardly ignore male attention, we all love it deep down inside. Here, all women can’t help but feel beautiful, appreciated, and feminine. Men, here’s a lesson for you:  when a woman denies the need for occasional reassurance and compliments… that’s a bunch of bullshit. Women want to feel beautiful but it’s almost impossible in the US; for some strange reason we have created a culture where it’s ok to ogle at models and stars but impolite to ogle at regular people. The only thing this accomplishes is making beauty seemingly unattainable for “normal” American women.  This is NOT ok. Beauty is not an enigma here, beauty is not something to seek or try to obtain… instead beauty is in everything and everyone. Beauty is not makeup and beautiful clothes and diets.  Enough about that, you guys get the point.

People fall in and out of love faster than the weather changes here. One minute, a couple will be passionately embracing on a park bench and in the next, the woman could be accusing her boyfriend of infidelity while he tries to soothe his angry female. Today, someone can be in love with the cutest purse they’ve ever seen in their life, and tomorrow they’ll call it shit that a sewing machine spat out. The fickleness and drama of Mendocinos almost makes me feel as if I’m living in a one big soap opera. Either emotions are heightened and more powerful here, or Americans try to stifle emotions as much as possible. Probably a little bit of both.  

Also, in Mendoza everything is either described in one of two ways.  The phrase“¡Qué lindo!” can mean anything from precious to cute to adorable to beautiful to trendy. This is a blanket statement means Mendocinos absolutely love whatever it is they are talking about.  The same goes for the blanket statement “¡Qué horrible!” which could signify disgust, hatred, surprise, dislike, or any other such emotion. In Mendoza, it seems like EVERYTHING is either lindo or horrible. It’s impossible for my mendocina mom to see an object or action without categorizing it in one of the above two ways.     

I learned what a letoh is today. Argentinians have a strange habbit of reversing the spelling of words to give them a different meaning. For example, letoh is hotel backwards; whereas a hotel is place to sleep for the night, a letoh is a building that looks like a hotel that you can rent a room by the hour to have sex. It sounds odd, I know, but it’s actually very practical.  Most of the Argentinian youth live with their families until they are in their mid to late twenties and normally don’t move out until they graduate from college and start their first job. Obviously the country isn’t filled with millions of 20-28 year old virgins, and it’s awkward to have sex in your parents' house so the letos were created for the youth of Argentina. Weird, huh?