Adventures Abound in Mendoza

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My recent posts on the Jerome Microbrewery in Potrerillos, Mendoza and the post on luxury wine tourism made me start to think that I should write on my experience in “adventure tourism” in Mendoza. Although I’m guessing your average oenophile isn’t an adventure seeker, there’s something out there for everyone.

If you have four days in Mendoza, you may want to break up your winery visits with a day of fun in the Andes. The mountains are spectacular in Mendoza and just driving through them is fun. I’ve had the chance to go to Potrerillos on three different occasions to twice mountain bike and to go rafting once.

In October, 2005 I headed up to Argentina Rafting on a bus that left the central terminal in Mendoza, which is a bit of a walk outside downtown Mendoza. The bus was extremely cheap (a couple dollars) and it left me off in Potrerillos right in front of Argentina Rafting. In December of 2006 I was with my brother who was paying, so I took the Argentina Rafting bus that picks you up at your hotel. The bus costs an extra US$9 but its definitely worth it if you aren’t very adventurous, don’t want the hassle of getting to the bus station and waiting for the bus, or don’t speak Spanish. If you’re on a tight budget, definitely take the bus from the terminal. It’s also a much more authentic experience (i.e. you won’t be sitting next to other Americans and Brits).

Once you’re at Argentina Rafting you can sign up for a number of different activities. Most activities are done twice a day depending on the demand. If you want to do the morning excursion you should get there before 9. You can also do excursions that last several days and offer a lot of different activities. So you can choose between doing rafting, kayaking (although you will need to do a course there if you aren’t experienced), hiking (known as trekking in Argentina), mountain biking, horseback riding, zip-lining (known as “canopy”) or hidrospeed (you go down the river on some sort of disc). Every activity is really cheap at around US$20 for a half of a day.

The rafting trip was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. I had never gone rafting and have been trying to go again ever since. The river is not dangerous at all (they provide helmets and life vests) but it is fast enough to be enjoyable. I only fell out once but it was no big deal – I just got back in. They employ a photographer to take pictures all the way down the river which you can buy on a CD at the end for a very low price. The guides are extremely knowledgeable and make sure you have a great time. There’s enough time for some chatter on the boat, and I made friends with two doctors from the province of Buenos Aires. I’m quite sure all of the guides speak good enough English to tell you whatever you need to know.

The other two times I went I decided I wanted a workout and went mountain biking. The first time was on a Saturday and was alone, which was fine. I was in a relatively large group of ten. I had a great time and got a good workout. I would say that you should be in decent shape to do the mountain biking, although the course isn’t very challenging at all for a novice. The second time I went I was with my brother and we were alone with the guide. He was great in tailoring the course to challenge us a little bit. We were also able to rest when we wanted to. I would suggest going on a week day to have this kind of an experience.

All in all, I had three great trips up to Potrerillos. A day of “adventure” up in the Andes would be a great way to work off the calories from those gourmet meals you’re having back in Mendoza City.

Argentine Beer Is More Than Just Quilmes

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As you probably already know, this is a blog about Argentine wine. However, this morning I stumbled upon an Argentine beer gaining some attention here in the U.S. First of all, Argentina would never be mistaken for Germany or Belgium for its beer quality and variety. While supermarkets dedicate entire aisles to wine, you would be lucky to find more than four or five kinds of beer. Quilmes, Stella Artois, Brahma, Heineken, and Budweiser dominate the market. And, although I truly do love Quilmes for its memory-inducing qualities of life in Buenos Aires, I am the first to admit that it’s not exactly the best beer in the world.

It seems that Quilmes, contrary to what many Argentines think, isn’t even the best domestic beer in Argentina (side note: the Buller Brewing Company in Buenos Aires has some very tasty beers, albeit pricey if you make money in pesos). One domestic beer critics are raving about is the Jerome Handcrafted Beer from Potrerillos, Mendoza.

My first reaction was, “Potrerillos?!?!” I haven’t explored many places outside of the city of Mendoza, but Potrerillos is one place I feel like I know very well, having visited three different times to go mountain biking and rafting (The picture at the right is of me, in 2005, in the bustling metropolis of Potrerillos). The town only has a few hundred residents (a guide at Argentina Rafting told me this) and is situated in what they call the “pre-cordillera” which translates to the “pre-mountain range” of the Andes. It is very dry, but the glacier-fed river (pictured below in 2005) that runs alongside the town is spectacular. This pure water provides the brewery with natural, healthy water that is not contaminated by chlorine found in city water supplies.

Jerome is a relatively new brewery, having been started in 1999, and currently employs only four people. The fascinating story of how the brewery came to be is explained by brewer Eduardo Maccari:

"It all started in the eighties, when I met a couple of Czechs that would change the course of my destiny. One winter afternoon, I was told that one of my Czech friends had gone to climb "El Plata", one of the highest peaks in the Andes and he hadn't returned. Fearing that an accident had occurred, I rushed to get help at the Air Force Base. They kindly took me to the site, where we spotted our friend's tent. There he was lying, asleep, frozen. We thought he had died, in fact, he showed no vital signs. We took him to the city of Mendoza, where, after a long time, he miraculously recuperated. In recognition, I was later invited to travel to the Czech Republic, where an old brewer taught me the art of beer making with an old recipe. Now I reproduce that recipe for you. This is how our brewery started. I started making beer as a hobby, in silence. Then I shared it with my friends, and now I'm brewing beer for the rest of Argentina and a few states in the USA, hoping you will enjoy drinking it as much as I do when I make it."

There aren’t many better stories than Eduardo’s. The operation still remains small, with Jerome only making five barrels a day. Those kinds of numbers would make one think that this is a part-time operation in someone’s basement. Not so. The Southern Wine Group, which imports to the United States well-known wineries such as Enrique Foster, snatched up the importing rights and is now distributing Jerome to several states in the U.S.

Currently, Jerome offers four flavors: Rubia, a light ale, Roja, a red ale, Diablo, a strong ale and Negra, a dark ale. You can read their tasting notes in a PDF here. According to this article on a beer website, the famed BBC wine critic Oz Clark came to Mendoza with the idea of tasting many of the fine wines from the region. After trying Jerome at the Hyatt Hotel in Mendoza, Clark raved about the beer and returned to London with his accolades. Weeks afterwards, Jerome had an order request of a 1,000 bottles from the Gaucho Grill, an Argentine-style steakhouse chain in the U.K.

If you are reading from the U.S., you can email Info@SouthernWineGroup.com to find out if Jerome is sold in your area or buy Jerome directly online here. If you are reading in Argentina, you can consult Jerome's list of places it is sold here.

Sources:

Images copied from the Jerome Brewery website and the Southern Wine Group website.

Article: “Cerveza with a sense of place.” By Gary Corbin. Guestontap.com. Accessed on June 26, 2007.