After seven hours of dust and desert, we arrived! A lush oasis of neatly lined grapevines with gardens of cacti and lavender in full bloom. Paradise! Bodega Colome is not only the world's highest winery, Argentina’s oldest winery, and located in the middle of the desert near to nowhere, but it is also owned by a Swiss chap called Donald Hess who happens to have a significant contemporary art collection. Part of this collection is made up of seven James Turrell works (the same light artist featured in our Naoshima, Japan posts) which are now housed in a dedicated museum in the bodega grounds. I had read about it months ago and knew that it was another art pilgrimage we absolutely had to make. Our reservation for a tour of the winery, lunch and tour of the museum had been in place for weeks and I was ridiculously excited! Lunch was simple but stupidly delicious, the wine was the best we tasted in Argentina, and the tour was to the point and informative. We learnt that some of the Malbec vines are still the original vines brought over from France 160 years ago by the first settlers in the region, and they now only exist in their untainted form at Bodega Colome. Sadly we weren't alone for the museum tour and there was a strict no photo policy but the works were amazing and some of the more interesting I have seen by the artist. Our only complaint was that we were a little disappointed by the architecture of the building and thought that a bit more effort could have gone into the design of the space. Our base that evening was the small town of Molinos, a quiet, charming, but dislocated village closest to the winery. And one of the more bizarre hostels we have stayed at, six beds in our room, and run by an old lady who wasn't quite all there.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorsRob & Charlie's travelling adventures on their long journey back to London after living in Hong Kong. Four continents, twelve countries, lots of experiences. Archives
July 2017
All photos copyright ©
Robert Ware & Charlotte Nunn |