Normally I wouldn’t do an entire post about one specific store, but Sastre Burgos was way too much fun to gloss over. The Sastre Burgos vineyard was founded decades ago by some dude’s great grandfather. It was passed down from generation to generation, and the guy that runs it now (Ignacio? Javier? Leonardo? Donatello? I don’t remember his name now) runs a great little tour of his shop in downtown Mendoza.
A $7 fee will get you a short tour of the shop and the history of the vineyard, plus tastings of 7 or 8 wines. He threw in a few extra wine tastings because we were entertaining. Once we discovered his passion was not wine but rather beer, that’s when the party got started. We bought a few local craft beers from him to add to the tasting, and he threw in a few more that he thought we’d lke. By the end of the tour, he was drinking with us, telling us great stories about some of the other groups that had come through, history of Mendoza, and even about his plans to move to the US (I think we determined that Colorado would be the best place for him). Well over 2 hours after we started, we had to leave to find food. The guy was fantastically friendly and entertaining, and I highly recommend that anyone who finds themselves in Mendoza should check out his store. Including the extra beers that we bought and the tip, I think it came to about $15/pp, which is a phenomenal deal for 2 hours of drinking and entertainment. No, we weren’t drunk when we left, but we were feeling pretty good about life. And that’s what Mendoza is all about.
