Vino y los Andes – Mendoza

I was stung by a wasp & I’m never drinking bonarda again…the last statement will probably turn out to be a lie.

We’re in Menzoda at the foot of the Andes mountains, in wine country. This is the land of Malbec, other countries may claim that they have Malbec – they may be able to grow the grape, but this is the only place where the wine has soul. We flew out of BA on Sunday morning and are meeting up with the newlyweds later in the day – they left yesterday afternoon and are taking the scenic route driving 12hrs cross-country. We’re kind of crashing thier luna miel. Agus has a secret itinerary, all I know is that local tour organiser Vale (a friend of our friends) has organised everything for us. We are staying the first 3 nights in Valle de Uco, but our first stop is Alta Vista for lunch. Aflie was very good on the 1.5hr plane trip, but needs to stretch his legs…the transit in the airports plus the car rides are now taking the toll on him. I’m glad to see that can run around under the trees on the large grassy area at the winery. He runs straight inside to use the toilet – bien Alfie! Later on he announces to Agus that he needs to go to the toilet again and starts taking his pants off…Agus asks if he needs to do a “bush wee” to which he answers “no, I’m going to poo” – she grabs him and rushes inside. Lunch is great, the wine is good, Alfie is watching iPad at the table and is quiet so I don’t care – I’m in Mendoza looking at the Andes. La vida es buena.

We’re off to the house we have rented in Valle de Uco (one of the 2 wine regions in Mendoza, the other being Luján de Cuyo) – it’s about an hour drive and thankfully Alfie crashes out in the car as he was getting a bit ratty. Santi and Caro beat us to the house, they have already tested out the pool, fair enough after an 8hr drive today. We have an asado planned for this evening, but quickly work out that we have no wood or charcoal…we brought the meat and the wine, so this will need to be fixed quickly – Santi y Caro van a comprar & problem solved. Nosotros abrimos una botella de vino (Finca la Malka 2015 Malbec, Cabernet Franc blend) – it’s extremely good! (I didn’t find this out until a day later but Agus the awesome wife she is, messaged Vale and bought us a case). Santi starts the fire and the asado gets underway – on the menu (for the meat lovers out there) is entraña y asado bandaritas and roast tomatoes. Bed time, tomorrow is going to be another special day en la tierra del Malbec.

DIA 2

We’re awoken by the perennial alarm clock Aflie at 6:50am…seriously dude, we’re on holiday, in actual the middle of a holiday, why can’t you sleep in to at least 7:30/8am? It’s ok though as I open our blinds to a magnificent view of the Andes. I might be saying that phrase a lot as it’s hard not to have a great view of them here. It’s strange for Aussies to see mountains that go from ground level straight up to the sky as ours back home rise up gradually…and they are way smaller. We sit outside and have breakfast soaking up the views. Alfie visits the cows & horses that are on the property, there is also a house cat and a bunch of dogs that keep him entertained. For lunch we are visiting a restaurant called Ruda. Unlike most places I have visited in Mendoza, it is not visible from the road, there are no vines to be seen, only a stone guardhouse, with another (fake) guardhouse behind it a bit further inside the property. Unlike vineyards in Australia you need to have an appointment to visit them here in Mendoza, we give the guard our details, he double checks over a radio and we’re given directions to the restaurant. It’s some 2.5km inside the property in some proximity to an Argentinian and Colombian flag. Strange that he would mention this, however it soon becomes apparent that the owner has sunk a bunch of plata into this place and is a Colombian. We follow the dirt road (most roads in Mendoza are dirt btw except for main roads) and find the junction with the flags, next it is a sign post that says “golf” and “restaurant”. Seriously there is a golf course here, I think to myself I should have brought my clubs. We park and walk the path to the restaurant. I see a putting green and laugh, it’s mini-golf! Down the stairs and into the restaurant, oh how wrong I am, there is a full 18 hole golf course carved into the rocky countryside. Who builds a private golf course here instead of a winery? If you know anything about water and Mendoza you know it is a precious resource, hard to gain rights for use (misuse can lead to imprisonment) and it’s expensive. Anyway my mind switches back to golf mode – for a course this hilly, you would need a motorised cart so surely the owner has thought of this. I later notice a line of 10-12 golf carts under cover beside the car park as were leaving. Back to lunch, Agus, Caro and Santi order – they are debating the menu items and decide we share everything & Caro needs to ensure that there are gluten free dishes as she is a celiac. I’m in charge of wine so I order a Cabernet Franc as I have been trying to convert people who think that Mendoza only does good Malbec. It’s a winner and I’ve converted Caro – boom score one for Jason! Time to sit back and enjoy the view.

Lunch is served. The mojellas are amazing, the provoletta with pickled beetroot is great (I’m stealing this idea), the picked zucchini & pan mindocina were good too. The Argentinians preferred the rabbit and black pudding. I ordered a second bottle of wine, this time a Bonarda which is another local grape varietal that is often thought of as a cheap table wine. It’s different, but good…well at least the first glass was. Somewhere, maybe half way through my 2nd glass, I took a sip only to feel a sudden, piercing pain in my top lip – I’d been stung by a small local wasp. ¡LCDTM! I cough / spat my wine out, Santi copped a bit of it (sorry) and I rushed to the toilet. Agus was wrangling Alfie at the time and I yelled at her to come in, she was very hesitant to enter the male toilet, I could see the stinger was still in my lip and needed her to pull it out. The staff were worried that I would go into anaphylactic shock so rushed to find some antihistamines and ice. Meanwhile Agus had painted my lip with Caladryl (we’ve been putting this on Alfie’s mosquito bites) – that stuff tastes like shite. F-me it hurt, the ice helped, I couldn’t eat desert, the bottle of Bonarda was left unfinished. You can see the swelling in the before and after photos – lesson of the day is that you need to check your glasses before you drink from them boys and girls.

Vamos a Bodega Pepper Tree – we go through the gates, figure we are in the wrong place, turn around leave, go down the road 200m, I get out and open a gate, we go through the actual vineyard and find the estate house (it’s on the road we had originally turned into). Agus drives past it, we do a u-turn, come back and park in the undercover area next to the other cars. Dale. This is a private estate, not open to the public so we enter with some hesitation, but inside to find Vale waiting for us & wine tasting table setup amidst a backdrop of mature trees from all parts of the world (as we were later told). My excitement is somewhat tempered due to my “wasp induced fat lip”, Vale helps source me a paracetamol and some ice. We’re introduced to Stefano (the owner) and Matías (the winemaker / agriculturist) who treated us to a tour of the property and estate house with a glass of Chardonnay that they only make 600 bottles of per year, most of which is sent back to the family in USA. It’s excellent, we feel privileged to have tried it. The estate is one of the oldest in the Uco area dating from 1975, most date from the mid-late 90’s / early 2000’s, so the vines here are considered old.

We settle in for 2 flights of wine tasting. Matais explains his project wines and his thoughts on winemakers vs. agricultural engineers vs. sommeliers. He is part winemaker and agri-engineer, a sommelier here is a waiter who can read english. We try 3 of his wines – instead of the typical wine classification system, he implemented a colour system. The labels are green, blue and grey and feature the big moustache of his then business partner in those colours. We are served muchas empanadas as well as the queso y fiambre picadas…no fancy pairings here, just good wine and good food. It’s on to the second flight and the final 2 wines to taste. The first is from Pepper Tree – Stefano’s estate. It’s their top end Malbec and it is “most excellent” as you would expect (thanks for letting me borrow that phrase Wayne Campbell). The final wine is the one we had the first night here – the La Finca Malka Malbec y Cab. Franc…nobody is complaining about trying this one again. It’s getting late, nearly dark when we leave. We head home, there is a minor car incident (might save this for another blog post) via a supermarket to get snacks for Alfie and breakfast food. ¡Otro gran dia!