This is wine country. The big festival in the Mendoza area celebrates the grape harvest, or ‘Vendemia’. But it is still early summer here in Argentina – peak growing season – and we won’t be around when the harvest is brought in.

Fortunately, there was an alternate bacchanal this weekend. Familia Zuccardi, one of the largest (750ha) wineries in Maipu had its once-a-year degustacion on Sunday.

This bodega is closed to the public 364 days of the year, so when they open their gates it is a lively party. Approximately 5000 people drove out to celebrate.

The price of admission was only $25 pesos ($7) for all-you-can-eat-and-drink, but the bodega is not close to any public transit routes, which keeps out those who can’t afford alternate modes . So, it was a young, affluent crowd that formed the majority of the guests.

Thanks to the organization skills of one of the other students (from France, where else?), a group of us headed out in the comfort of a small bus. Wanting to get our full $25 pesos worth, we headed out at 11:30 with a plan to return at 6.

On arrival, we collected our sampling glass and degustacion notebook (no pencil—let’s not kid ourselves that this was serious work), and began working our way through the various tasting rooms.

There were 11 reds, 6 whites, 4 olive oils, 3 champagnes, 2 fortified wines, 1 rose on offer. Fortunately there was a lot of bread at hand to cleanse the palate, and cheese to keep the crowd standing (and round out the flavours of the wine).

But just in case you needed more sustenance, they were also sampling ice creams—vanilla with Malbec (very nice), peach with Syrah (pleasant), and pineapple with Viogner (it would have been piggy of me to try all three).

For those who do not live by wine alone, there was more hearty fare for sale..

The day was sunny, warm, and clear. The various gardens at the bodega were lovely. The organizers had laid out hay bales instead of chairs, and happy groups of tipplers perched to listen to live music.

Meanwhile, on another patio professional tango dancers variously entertained and picked out willing (and variably able) dance partners from the spectators.

Several of the group were feeling no pain by the time we found our way back to our bus at the end of the day The party continued at the house of MScott and Rachel – we didn’t go (we had committed to meeting some amigos at a Tango dancehall that night). It must have been a good time, the school was very quiet the next morning.

All and all, a successful promotional event for Zuccardi and a perfect day for us.