March 17, 2018
Near Agrelo: Chandon
The purpose of coming to Agrelo was to visit the Chandon winery, a sparkling wine specialist established by the French firm of the same name. Before we could cycle there I first had to repair a puncture that I picked up yesterday evening while cycling back from Lujan where I had done some shopping etc. The main road down to Agrelo from Lujan has a very nice cycle path sheltered under chestnut, eucalyptus and oak trees so the ride was very relaxing.
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The staff at Chandon were great - welcoming, informative and very professional. Our tasting group, apart from us, included a Brazilian couple, a Belgian and two Italians. The staff member leading the tasting was also Brazilian so the languages switched between Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and English. The two Italians turned out to be top cyclists in the earlier years. The one had rode at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 and the other, Francesco Moser (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Moser), previously held the world one hour record - a distance of 50.808 kilometers in 1972.
The wines, of which we were given an opportunity to taste four, were pretty good and surprisingly reasonably priced. It was inevitable that we would both latch onto the highest priced one, interestingly a hundred percent Pinot Noir aged for four years on the lees. If we had Champagne glasses back at our digs, would certainly have taken a bottle home with us. All in all, a very worthwhile visit
After that we tried to get into two other wineries - Norton and - but they were not keen to accept walk-in visitors. So we mosied on up to Lujon to buy some groceries at CarreFour. On the way back Leigh picked up a puncture about two kilometers away from our digs. So we just walked the bikes back where I found two punctures in her rear tube and removed four tiny wires from the tyre, probably from burst truck tyres. Three punctures in twenty four hours when we have had only two in the past two months. It must be said that the rear tyre on Leigh's bicycle is getting pretty smooth and isn't offering as much protection as it should.
Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 2,300 km (1,428 miles)
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