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.

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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.