Mendoza Day 3 & 4

DISCLAIMER – This is a long one, but our most amazing days yet!! Day 4 was incredible… If you have any interest in a budding wine region… you MUST visit here.

Note – Each of us are receiving indivudal emails about the blog, but you are welcome to submit comments…. See the comment on this blog link below.


Mendoza day 3

Oscar picked us up precisely on time. He has been amazing.

We started first at Lopez Winery, (www.bodegalopez.com.ar). Initially I was really put off that the tour coordinators had included this winery. It is a HUGE production facility with over 20 wines and an automated system for bottling. It was very big. After we got a chance to see the large-scale production, it gave us a good contrast to the boutique wineries that we had been visiting. Another highlight was the tasting room was in a cave…. A beautiful octagonal room at the bottom of a long staircase. No one purchased wine, but we did purchase bodega made olive oil.

The second winery of the day was Carinae (www.carinaevinos.com). The owner, from France, purchased this winery in 2003 after many years of neglect. Everything about the winery was related to the constellation and stars. Carinae is a constellation that is directly over Mendoza at harvest time. Here we had our first Malbec rose wine. They also had a blend that was amazing. We all purchased a little something. Dave and Bill both bought a bottle of the blend and the winemaker wrote a note “be patient” as he is recommending the wine be drunk 5-7 years from now.
The third winery of the day was Tempus Alba (www.tempusalba.com). It is sold in the US under the label Preludio. There we met up with one of the owners who was telling us their unique way of reproducing grape vine cuttings in the lab. The building is amazing. We were then handed over to Dennis Myer, a Chilean young man, who mystified us all. He had a slow pace and great stories. Also resembled Val Kilmer in a way… (as you can see from the photo). We purchased some stuff… had some great photos.. and then off to lunch.


Lunch was at Almacen del Sur Cava Gourmet (www.almacendelsur.com). I was most excited about the owner’s name, Santiago Orozco Russo. His father’s name was Orozco, which is also the name of my best friend in Hawaii, Randy Orozco… and Russo was his mothers family name… this excited me for obvious reasons. We were met by Santiago and he gave us the history and provided us a tour. This is a great little operation, which preserves some of the best items grown on his grounds at the peak of their freshness.



Lunch started with 4 spreads produced by Santiago’s company, a delicious basket of homemade breads and a small bit of cream cheese.
1. Roasted Garlic
2. Roasted Eggplant with local Olive Oil
3. A sun dried tomato (he showed us the drying racks) marinated in oregano and olive oil
4. Roasted baby broccoli with Parmesan cheese and pine nuts

We then started with the first course – an orange and carrot soup with roasted beets, nutmeg bread and preserved roasted baby zucchini.






The second course was 3 small rolls wrapped and fried egg roll style, each with a different filling. 1 was green garlic shoots and mozzarella cheese, 2nd was chorizo and tomato, and 3rd was roasted vegetables (from his deli). This was along side an aurugula salad with mozzarella cheese.





The main course was roasted goat, over a square of potatoes.


















The dessert was layered, chocolate mousse with almonds, topped with vanilla cream and then orange whipped cream. This was served on a bed of lavender cream sauce and topped with 2 squares of candied pumpkin and 2 squares of quince Malbec jelly. WOW!



Our lunch was not paired with wines and Dave did the honors of starting with a Viognier, another new varietal for Argentina, and then a Cab-Malbec blend by Clos de los Siets. Great choices….


After the day tasting and lunch, we amazingly had run out of toilet tissue and paper towels at the house. So we stopped by Super Wal-Mart again. We then went into Mendoza City to meet the people from the Vines of Mendoza who arranged all of our tours for us. We walked around the city until later that evening and then returned to the Vines location to listen in on a winemaker’s discussion from Antucura Winery. The winery is still new and their wines did not impress us much.

Home to a nice fire in the front room’s fireplace (that the groundskeeper forgot to open the flue and smoked the entire house….).



Mendoza Day 4




No run today. We were picked up later today, 930 a.m., and headed out to the Valle de Uco (Uco Valley) of the Mendoza Region. This region is at a higher elevation, between some lower mountains and the Andes. Because of the higher elevation, we are expecting some different wines. Due the elevation, the grapes develop a thicker skin and have a more intense flavor.

Our first winery was Salentein, (www.killkasalentein.com). We arrived and there was a chapel, a large building and then the winery in the distance. We passed the chapel and went into the main building. We were directed to purchase tickets…. Yes tickets. We then went inside where were shuttled into a theater to watch a video explaining the wine and region of Uco Valley

The movie was lasting a little longer than I wanted, but endured the experience anyway. We were then lead into the main building where we met our guide. She was happy to practice her English. She is also studying Portuguese because the 2nd largest group of visitors are from Brazil.

The second building from the main building was the winery. We walked the 100 meters to the building, trying not to be too distracted by the beautiful clear day and the snow covered mountains in the distance. The guide also explained the chapel and winery were equal distances from the main building in opposite directions.



The main building is in the shape of a cross with 4 equal wings. There are 2 levels to the building and the materials were all natural stone and concrete. The main level is where the stainless steel tanks are kept for each different grape verietal. Directly below the area in the basement are the oak barrels that store the same varietals as the steel tanks above. There were 4 wings and each wing met in the center. In the center were 3 concentric circles of barrels were holding their premium blend. The center circle was open to the upper floor and a small square window at the top of the building. It was very abbey feeling. We then went to taste their sauvignon blanc and pinot noir. The wine was good, and Megan, Liz and Melissa each purchased some.

The winery owner also had a small exhibition of his art that was in a gallery of the middle building. Running short on time (because of the long video), I rushed through. There were some great contemporary pieces. It was nice. We all rushed back to the bus where Oscar was ready to take us to the next winery.








The second winery for the day was La Azul. (www.bodegalaazul.com). The moment I walked in, I could feel the passion and uniqueness. Where we had seen huge productions of wine…. This was 1 room and 3 people; the winemaker and 2 interns. The winemaker was the person giving us the tour. Oscar introduced the winemaker to Liz, who would be our interrupter, as she did not speak English. We then all commented, we had found the Caris Turpin of the Mendoza wine region.

We entered the room and to our left were 8 steel tanks and to the right 100 or so barrels. Almost no room for us, but we gathered around a small bar where the winemaker started opening her soul to us. The winery only makes 30,000 bottles per year and considered the winery to be a boutique winery. They offered only 3 wines; a Malbec, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a blend of Cabernet and Malbec. One of the interns gathered the glasses, and these were not small sip tasting glasses, these were the real things, and opened the Malbec. He poured us a regular glass of wine. At first we were thinking wow, these people are generous, but we do not need this much…. Until we tasted. WOW…. This was one of the best Malbecs I had tasted, straight from the bottle to our glasses. We were all amazed. It was smooth, great balance of red fruit, low tannins, …. Wow. There was NO spitting and almost nothing left in our glasses. The intern had started opening the Cabernet Sauvignon, knowing we had the cab and blend to taste, we asked for smaller portions. And again, this cabernet was AMAZING….. not that we needed to purchase any more wine this trip, but we asked the price of the malbec and cab… each were $15 Argentinean pesos, or $5 US…. We were tasting something that was worth so much more. Between us discussing in disbelief at the price, the winemaker quickly asked… oh is that too expensive for my wine??

We then tasted the blend. The blend was amazing. Ever since arriving, I had been close to tears because I could feel the passion and detail for the wine here, and it showed when we tasted the blend. Again, we were all amazed at the complexity and balance of flavors… She then gave us a barrel sample of the 2006 Malbec, which still needed another year of aging. It too was good. We were mystified by the intense deep color and great flavor, although you could tell it was a young wine.

We started tallying up what we wanted between the 7 of us and in the end it was 2 cases. She does not have room to store that much wine at the tasting room so she is going to bring the wine to our house tomorrow where we will settle up the payment then.

The third winery, Andeluna Cellars, (www.andeluna.com) was a lot larger, but I was not in the mood for being there. I was still on an emotional high from the AZUL winery. The Andeluna winery is co-owned by a member of the Lay family (Frito-Lay Company). He came down to the region and purchased a ranch and then decided to finance a winery. Here we had a guide take us around and show us their facility and production. In our group was a local Argentiain who lived in Buenos Aires and is a consultant with the USDA on how to market and distribute Argentina wine to the US. The wine was good, but we were ready for lunch.

I may not be giving the place justice, but my disappointments here was the tasting fees were in US dollars, and quiet expensive, compared to the others. My assumption was the fees were in US dollars to make the numbers seem as if they were in line with the prices we were paying elsewhere in Argentinean Pesos, although with the conversion rates, it was 3 times the prices…. I may be selling this winery short, because Bill started mentioning that he has seen their label before. I knew we had not drank any… so then we started thinking about the Dallas Morning News Wine Competition and started looking around the tasting room, and there they were… the DMN Wine Competition medals.



Off to lunch at La Tupina, the dining room of Altas Winery.

We were driving on this country road and then we see a SMALL red building in the middle of a field. There are 2 young ladies outside and when they saw our van round the corner, they ran inside. We were greeted warmly in the front room and shown the small tasting room and then led to a back room where there was a table set up for us. At one end were sofas and tables and the other end, through French doors was an open fireplace with pans on the hearth. There was a bar table in front of the fireplace. The host gave us the option of having the first course (8 different tapas, but thanks to the chef, turned into 9 for most and 10 for Rolando and I) in front of the fireplace or at the table. We chose the fireplace kitchen.

























The chef came out and started working the food in the fireplace while we started with their Torrontes. A white similar to a sav blanc none of us had tried until arriving in Mendoza, but really like…

The tapas included –

1. A hand carved beef short rib on a slice of homemade bread. The rib had been resting on a grill over wood coals. It was SOOOO good. Rolando and I were salivating over the bone, which still had some meat on it, but were not sure how formal the protocol would be here.

2. With the beef short rib, we had another piece of meat cooked in gravy. The host started to tell us what it was, but seeing the texture and color, I asked her to wait until we had tried it to tell us what it was…. It was beef kidney sautéed and then simmered in white wine and herbs. It was also served on a small slice of homemade bread. (NOTE… the short rib bone was returned to the fireplace in the kidney pan).

3. Next was a bacon wrapped piece of chicken and mozzarella – The bacon was amazingly good. We would later learn they make their own bacon with pigs from the farm.

4. Next was a bowl of soft polenta topped with Parmesan cheese, homemade tomato sauce and a slice of the best barbequed Chorizo. This was amazing too…. We thought it was the best Chorizo yet… we asked and yes, they homemade the Chorizo and bacon. WOW…

Interlude – The host was being VERY generous with the wine… so by this time, Rolando and I decided it was time that I asked for the meaty bone from the beef short-rib. The chef graciously gave it to us and he and I shared the fire flavored meat and crisped fat…. YUM!!!

5. Next was onions simmered in wine and herbs with mozzarella cheese in small bread cups. (yes, the bread is homemade).

6. Next came a bowl of hand cut fries, deep-fried in lamb fat and topped with a little paprika and salt. WOW again….

7. A small bowl of spiced beef topped with creamy white sweet potatoes and topped with sugar and cinnamon. This was reminiscent of a Shepard’s pie, but the spices were much more intense. The sweet potatoes were light, sweet and the cinnamon on top was the perfect complement to the spicy beef and paired nicely with the wine. WOW!!

8. Because we liked the Chorizo so much, he sliced another one and served it on a small bite of bread. While were swooning over the Chorizo, the chef disappeared into the kitchen.

9. Lastly…. For the appetizers, the chef emerged from the kitchen with a small basket of beef empanadas. We did not ask, but I bet, they too were cooked in lamb fat. The beef inside was hand chopped and not the usual ground beef, and included hard-boiled eggs, onions, carrots and spices in a deep rich brown gravy. We were in the middle of our first empanada, and the kitchen suddenly filled with smoke from the fireplace. We retreated back to the table with an empanada in one hand and our Terraszzids in the other, but Megan yelled “Someone grab the basket of empanadas….”.


The second course was a crepe rolled with a rauttiolle of vegetables and topped with a toasty layer of broiled mozzarella, surrounded by a parsley oil. This was paired with their Syrah. We were SOOOO full from the Tapas, but most of us cleaned our plates.

The main course was paired with their Malbec – It was a Lamb Confit wrapped in goat “bacon”, a slow cooked piece of beef roast that was cooked for 5 hours in white wine and the juice from the dish reduced to a sauce that also covered the mashed potatoes. WOW!!!!! We were not hungry, but again, most of us cleaned our plates. We were also thankful that we did not have another filet mignon.

They had a dessert for us, but no wine pairing. The host had mentioned a brut sparking wine that was a blend of chardonnay and merlot grapes. None of us had previously tried a sparkling wine made with merlot, we ordered a bottle to go with our dessert course. The dessert was a trio
1. A grapefruit and orange salad
2. A spiced chocolate and dark raisin terrene
3. A quenelle of apricot ice cream that was made with homemade apricot jam from the apricot tree outside the back window. They harvest the apricots and make jam for the winter. The ice cream was served on a bed of crushed brittle.







We were then served coffee…. Which Megan and I had on the sofa as we reflected on the incredible day, the meal, and the service….. the moment.

The bill came, and we were all to pay $110 Argentina pesos, (or $33) per person, which included lunch, wine and the extra sparkling wine….. WOW! This is living.

Back from the trip home, Dave and I scouted out the local market. We have some overripe bananas and tomorrow morning I am going to make homemade banana bread for the gang. We do not have a wine tour…. And get to spend the day at home, until our dinner reservations.

Tonight holds “karaoke fiesta” at a bar 1 block away…. I will have to post a couple of pictures of us giving our neighborhood the finest karaoke.

Mendoza and Catching up from Buenos Aires

WOW… how a couple of days slip by.








Buenos Aires Day 3 –


I woke to go for my morning run and it was raining. Not just misting, but RAINING. We all lingered over breakfast and the lingered in the lobby waiting for the rain to let up or to decide how to rearrange our plans for a rain delay. We decided on the Museo de Arte de Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA). There was a little bit of EVERYTHING at MALBA. Everything, including a ROTHKO, my favorite painter of all time… Once again, the cab ride made us all pray a little; especially in the rain.







We cabbed to Galleria Pacifico. Lunch was nearby at an unremembered place just for the fact of eating. I had a mediocre pizza. We were all just hungry, wet and tired. Shopping was not inspiring, although Megan found her Akiabara jeans there.

Still uninspired we decided on a Calden, a small corner bistro. We were VERY surprised at the amazingly good food again. Melissa had the hit dish with a beef filled empanada. She used the phrase “uno mas” (one more) more than once. We all ordered random stuff with salads, pumpkin, grilled veggies and gnocchi.


Buenos Aires Day 4 / Mendoza Day 1 –

This is the day we leave BA for Mendoza. We had pushed seeing Evita’s tomb until today, hoping for better weather. WE HAD PERFECT WEATHER! We were going to cab to the site, but decided to walk instead. And walk we did… we walked and walked and walked and then found out we were a little off track. We walked some more and more and more… We saw at least a dozen of dog walkers. One of the favorite things to do while walking was to warn others of the dog poop on the sidewalk. We now see why. There are dog walkers that walk 12-16 dogs at one time and there is no time to stop and allow the dogs to do their business, much less the walker pick up after a dozen or dogs, so they just go on the sidewalk while walking.














FINALLY we arrived at the tomb. I did hum a few bars of "don't cry for me Argentina...."












Being rushed, we quickly cabbed to Café Tortone. Lunch was fast and included sandwiches made with 9-inch square bread cut into 4 long slices. We ended with chocolate con churros (churros dipped in hot chocolate). WOW!



We were off to the domestic airport, which was much nicer than the international airport. Rolando and Liz had to pay a luggage up-charge due to toooooooo many bags and tooooo much weight. The airport was modern, clean and nice reasonable shopping. The flight was uneventful with Havana brand crackers and cookies in a cute little box.

Upon arriving in Mendoza, the sun was setting, but the full moon was rising … we could see the snow on the mountains. WOW… we were stunned. There were 2 gates and no big issues with luggage. We met Oscar, our driver for the week and piled all of our luggage into the Mercedes Benz minibus and started toward Casa Mendoza, our lodging for the week. Bill had requested that we stop off for groceries and supplies. Guess where he stopped…. SUPER Wal-Mart. It was familiar, yet, so different. With only 20 min, we divided and concurred. Supplies included 3 frozen pizzas, jamon, chorizo, water, coke light, regular coke, yogurt, coffee, cheeses, bread and breakfast bars.

We arrived at the house a little earlier than expected. We could not get in and Oscar was ready to head home. The on-site guy finally opened the steel door and let the van in the courtyard. We unloaded our 20+ bags (not including groceries) and waited…. And waited and waited. Finally the guy with the keys came by and we were in.

The pictures from the website did not do the house justice. It is very nice. 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2 living rooms, 3 fireplaces and a nice sized kitchen. With this being my birthday… I chose the room first. Everyone else split between rooms, with Megan and Melissa on the 2nd story of the house.

We cooked our pizza, had some chorizo and jamon and extra cheese and apples.
We opened the following wines from our Wal-Mart stash –
Cristobal 1492 2006 Cosecha Malbec
Don Nicanor 2004 Blend of Cabernet, Malbec and Merlot
Novecento Vino Espumante

It was a good first night.





Mendoza Day 2 –

Melissa and I woke for our morning run at 645. It was still dark and the full moon had only a sliver of white with hues of blue, purple, red & orange. But that was not the only inspiration for our run…. As we ran, we kept getting whiffs of freshly baked bread. We followed our nose and found the panneria where trucks were lined outside and huge bags of bread being loaded in the trucks heading out for the day.

Back home, the coffee that I brewed before leaving was waiting for us. My breakfast consisted of yogurt, a breakfast bar and coffee. The hot water heater is small so the early ones get the steam!!
Oscar picked us up for our first day of Mendoza touring. We were off….

Achaval Ferrer was our first location. (www.achaval-ferrer.com)
AF is a very high-end bodega. We tasted a common Malbec table wine – their low end and we agreed.
Next was their blend, the 2005 Quimera, of Malbec, Cabernet, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Quimera is Spanish for “aiming for perfection”. We also tasted 2 single vineyard Malbec’s showing the difference of the same grape at 2 different elevations. Our favorite was the Quimera. We purchased a couple of bottles and got a couple of bottles.

The second visit was at Pulenta Estate –
The Pulenta Estate is private and by appointment only. We arrived and Anna met us at the door and said we were going to start by touring outside, but needed to have a glass of wine in our hand. We went inside for a glass their entry brand La Flor Sauvignon Blanc. I knew I would like this place immediately. Glass of the sav blanc in our hand we headed out into the vineyard for a quick tour. Anna skipped the repetitive “how-to” and just quickly went to the points that set them apart. They have really large oak vats for the first fermentation. The second fermentation is in the oak barrels. She took us to their bottling and aging area where they store their filled bottles.

Their wines are not available in the US, but Porsche, gives a bottle of one of their Pulenta Estates Malbec-Cabernet Blend as a gift for purchasing their Cayenne.

We then went into their barrel room and in the center was their tasting room. The tasting room was private and Anna made each of us feel as if we were millionaires. She started us with the La Flor Cabernet Sauvignon. It was great. We then went to the Pulenta Estate Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine was amazing. We ended with the Pulenta Grand Cabernet Franc. The wines continue to get better. With our enthusiasm, Anna disappeared upstairs to see if she could have the winemaker give us taste the Late Harvest Cab Franc , which was still in the barrel. She reappeared with a 375ml bottle of the beautiful dark red raisiny elixir. This was amazing, but still in the barrel.

We headed upstairs. We were taking the final sips of our Late Harvest Cab Franc upstairs with us and I also grabbed Bill’s unfinished Malbec – Cab blend. Double fisted with 2 great wines, Anna looked at me and said “I adore you….”

We decided while she was gone, we added up our purchases. Between the 7 of us, we purchased 33 bottles. While upstairs in the office paying our dues, the winemaker was nearby and we were complementing him on how well he was doing his work and how great the Late Harvest Cab Franc was going to be. Somehow he disappeared and reappeared later with another 375ml bottle directly from the barrel as a gift for us to take with us. We were in heaven.

Third winery was Tapiz –
Tapiz, (www.tapiz.com) and their higher end brand Zolo, is available in the US at Cost Plus world market. We started with a quick tour of the vineyard in a horse drawn carriage. The host knew we were behind our schedule, so she did some quick things for us.





1. we tasted our first Torrontes, unfiltered and from the tank.
2. We tasted 3 stages of malbec; freshly fermented, aged for 15 months in the second fermentation and lastly bottled aged for 15 months. This was a good lesson on how one wine will change due to aging. The first tasting was very tannic and bitter, the second had an overwhelming nose of burnt toast and the third tasting had delicious mouth feel and ripe fruit.
3. All but the last was tank tasting.
4. She had examples of how the French oak barrels were less porous than the American oak barrels and how the same time in the barrels penetrated the wood differently.


The 4th tasting and lunch today was at Ruca Malen
We were in dire need of food at this point. We arrived at Ruca Malen (www.bodegarucamalen.com) at 2:30 p.m. My breakfast of yogurt, a breakfast bar and coffee was not holding me over well. The lunch was a 5 course tasting menu paired with their wines. The menu was:

1. A bruschetta topped with house made ricotta with lemon zest topped with pureed eggplant. Paired with their Yaquen 2006 Chardonnay-Semillon. The lemon zest in the cheese became sweet like a lemon tart when paired with the wine. Amazing paring.
2. Pumpkin, Raisin and Caramelized Onion Tart topped with fresh mozzarella. This was paired with their Yaquen 2006 Malbec Cab blend. The pumpkin and raisins turned even sweeter with the wine.
3. Lentils with cream paired with Ruca Malen 2004 Merlot. The Lentils were amazing. Spiced with blood sausage, herbs and pepper in cream. This was our favorite dish. We all noted the wine was not doing much for us… and then Dave, in his vast knowledge of wines, realized the wine had oxidized. We had a new bottle and it was much better.
4. Beef Filet with spicy vegetables and rosemary potatoes and black pepper butter. This was paired with Ruca Malen 2004 Malbec and their higher end brand Kinien 2003 cabernet sauvignon. Great Great Beef and even better wine.
5. For dessert, we had a quinoa, bread and roasted apple cake with hesperidina and caramel sauce. The hesperidina sauce tasted orange and tangy. The pairing was with their best dark coffee.

What a day… Thanks to Oscar we made it back to the house , unloaded and headed to a nap….


We woke at 7ish and started thinking of dinner. Liz had purchased supplies to make a Spanish Tortilla. We had a tortilla with a jamon, cheese and apple. We had some 2007 vintage coke light and a couple of local beers.

We are all heading to bed soon and tomorrow starts with Oscar arriving at 815 a.m.! Fun times. More tomorrow.