VINO VAGABONDS

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What We're Drinking Now: Patagonia Mountain Wine

Mountain wine in Bariloche

About 5-6K into our 18k bike ride through the mountains of Bariloche, we came upon a panoramic view-point with about 5 vendors selling goods to picture-taking tourists

One of those vendors was Rafael, a forty-something winemaker selling his homemade 'Mountain' wine.  After a brief conversation, he let us try a sip and it tasted more like Sangria than red wine. It had about 6% alcohol and was a sweet concoction of grape wine, orange juice, honey and a 'secret ingredient' he wouldn't mention. 

I don't know if it was the bees swarming around our heads, the beautiful panorama of Bariloche directly in front of us, or Raphael's enthusiasm, but we were helpless to resist, and for $25 AR we stuffed a bottle in our backpack.

It only got better later that night as we shared it with a French traveler and a Dutch yogi over a deep conversation about natural selection, Darwin and pollution. Now that is Vino Vagabonding!