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.