What happens when an unprepared wine novitiate gets airlifted into the middle of Bodega heaven with more than 40 wineries and over 50,000 acres of vineyard mazes? Call me Alice in Wine Wonderland – wide-eyed and all too willing. The resulting adventure was by turns strange, wondrous and a little woozy.

“Mendoza is Malbec.” This pronouncement from our guide at our first winery tour and tasting at Legarde last Friday morning made me a bit nervous. My previous experiences with Malbec had resulted in a reflexive pucker: Cheap supermarket Malbec can be quite sour! But not at Legarde, one of the oldest and most traditional wineries in the Lujan de Cuyo Region of Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes Mountains 600 miles west of Buenos Aires where my husband and I are spending a month in Spanish immersion classes.

It’s not that I don’t know anything about wine, but in the past two decades, my crowded life and frugal sensibilities hadn’t made space for the exploration required to become a “wine expert.” While I’m able to enjoy just about anything above jug wine, to date my personal favorites had veered toward crisp Sauvignon Blanc and fruity Cabernets. And my budget? Spending more than $15 on a bottle had always seemed a bit daring and slightly naughty. What’s more, I’ve always avoided even tasting a truly fine, expensive wine. If, say, a $40 bottle or (heaven forbid) a $75 wine was so significantly better than those I felt I could normally afford, well I just didn’t want to know. Content in my ignorance? Absolutely.

Then came Mendoza.

Here I was at Legarde, founded in 1897 and one of the few wineries in Argentina to have a controlled “appellation” designation (DOC) for its Malbec wines. The Malbec grape originated in France where its history was almost Cinderella-ish – Malbec grapes were used merely for their deep violet color and intensity to help create the Bordeaux claret blends. But when an Argentine provincial governor ordered up some grape vineyards for Mendoza in the mid 19th century, the Malbec plantings found their true home. This is a desert climate with rain only about twice a year, and properly irrigated, the lowly Malbac turned into the belle of the ball.

And what a party! After a tour through the winery’s various barrel rooms where the wine is aged and the flavors are developed, we ended up in the understated Legarde tasting room. We stood around a small counter where our guide poured two to three ounces of Malbec into our goblets, rotating through the lesser vintages and working toward the reserve wines that cost roughly 100 pesos. These prices concerned me until I remembered to divide by the current exchange rate of 3.8. On local soil, the bottles would be about $26 each -- still over my typical budget. After seven glasses or so, I no longer worried about the price (or much of anything else). I knew you were supposed to sip and spit, but these velvety wines were so complex and the guide’s careful descriptions of the nuances in flavor from bottle to bottle were in themselves intoxicating. How could you leave even a swallow behind? Sacrilege!

After this amazing tour and tasting came a gourmet four-course lunch on the terrace overlooking the vineyard. (Many established wineries have their own kitchens and offer lunch as an option.) Each course arrived paired with the perfect complementary wine. By this point I was really getting into it: Earthy overtones and hints of blackberry. Or was it blueberry? Mulberry? It felt like drinking a silk tapestry – and the more wine I downed the more poetic my musings.

After Legarde we were expected at a second winery (some pilgrims reserve four visits a day), but we had to bow out. We limped back to the hotel and fell, a bit defeated, into bed. One two-hour nap later and we were planning our Saturday assault. (Click here for that chapter!)

Have you ever had the chance to visit a vineyard and winery? Where and when and what was it like? Please comment and join the conversation!