Día 5 en Mendoza – we have a packed schedule and I tried to add to it. First we met Vale (and her dog Jack) for breakfast at Brillat Savarin in Luján de Cuyo. Whilst talking wines (you can’t escape this topic in conversation in Mendoza) a new Gin distillery is mentioned. Quick as a flash our new friend Juan (a wine distributor) calls the owner and asks if we can visit and do a tasting. He organises it for us at 4pm and we’re going to distill our own gin with the botanicals of our choosing. Bueno!
We’re now off to the first winery of the day, Riccitelli. They are a smaller, more boutique bodega that has been around for a long time and I’m told they were one of the major promoters of Argentinian Malbec internationally. Their winemaking techniques were interesting to me as I’d not before seen Spanish and Italian style small terracotta fermentation urns used. They also had 2 different types of concrete eggs (shape and size varied) as well as above ground and subterranean concrete tanks as well as oak barrels. On to the tasting – they started us off with a Torrontés. It’s a popular white wine here and almost all grown up north in Salta not in Mendoza. I don’t mind Torrontés and this wine was ok, but I was here to taste wines from Mendoza. Next was their house wine Malbec blend – things were looking up. The Cab. Fanc. was good, different to those from Uco, it has more spice and less fruit upfront. Then the Republic Malbec with grapes from vines planted in 1908, fermented in French oak and only 6000 bottles produced annually – it’s their flagship wine. It’s a very good Malbec, up there with some of the best I’ve had this trip.
Side note – the Riccitelli restaurant is vegetarian but you can ask for meat to be added. Their veggie gardens were impressive and Alfie may have pinched more than a few black, red & yellow tomatoes from their vines. He also loved the dragon mural on the side of their shipping container in the garden.
A glorious lunch
Almorzar es en la cantina Gloria. It’s a nicely renovated and restyled old building that has its own wine shop (of course it does) that sells wine at market prices to those dining in-house. I meet the owner and sommelier who helps me find a Cab. Franc in his cava (cave). Shock, horror, I order a zucchini carpaccio para entree y el plato principal fue lasagna de hongos y pollo. (Purposely written en Español so the carnivores out there don’t disown me – I promise there will be more cow dishes soon). Alfie is ratty now and we promise to take him for ice cream next door. Santi, Caro and I tale him leaving Agus to pay the bill. She is my azúcar mamá en Argentina…I’ll explain the crazy double currency system here in another post.
Santi has been working very hard since day 1 when we landed in Argentina to be the favourite uncle. He’s been constantly repeating the phrase “Santi tío favorito” to Alfie and getting him to repeat it – actually successfully. But when it comes to helado or “ado” in Alfish (ice-cream) he’s not sharing it with him!
The team is tired, they want to relax by the pool at home so we postpone the Gin distillery tour until my next Mendoza trip. It will be in April – I love this place, so I’m coming back on my own. We also have a late dinner planned so it’s a good idea for Alfie to take a nap anyway, he crashes out in the car (as usual)…actually everyone (except for Agus) naps for a bit in the car. We stop for supplies at the local Jumbo supermarket, Alfie wakes up and insists on coming in this time. He’s a wild child sometimes, I have to stop him starting up the electric disabled shopping cart and taking off in it – he nearly did! At the checkout he finds the boxes and pretends he is a robot monster & crashes I to the guard railing. Comedy gold…as a parent, sometimes you just can’t help but laugh. We’re back home, the guys hit the pool, I manage to watch some of the Chelsea vs. Norwich EPL game (vamos Chelsea! Dale Alfie) whist entertaining Alfie building a castle on the sofas – we won 3-1.
Cena con Mallmann
Vamos a Ramos Generales en Bodega Kaiken para cena. Es un restaurante de Francis Mallmann un famoso Argentino chef. I once tried to propose to Agus at his other restaurant (Siete fuegos) last time we were in Mendoza, but the frogs were too loud so the romance was killed.
The restaurant has outdoor kitchens, set around open fire pits and wood fired ovens. Seating is either in the vineyard or at picnic style tables under their own shade sail style pergolas, we are seated at the later. There is a nice walkway covered by grapevines, which the Insta influencers in our group take advantage of and snap some pictures. I get to the carta de vino and order the Kaiken Mai Malbec – our waiter informs us that the sommelier wants us to decant the wine for 20-30mins before drinking. I then order their Cab. Franc as our group can’t wait that long for a drink and none of us are driving tonight. The sommelier comments on how great my taste in wine is and some other stuff I can’t understand, obviously she is going over the top a bit as Agus tells me later that she was giving her the “he’s my husband” stink eye. The food is great as you would expect, my entraña is excellent – I told you carnivore fans I’d be back on the wagon soon! The Mai Malbec is spectacular, it’s from 135yr old vines so I wasn’t expecting it to be a bad wine. 5 our of 5 stars from me and probably the best wine I’ve had in Mendoza. With the dual currency system working in our favour, this cost us $40 USD…you can’t get a bottle of this quality for this price probably anywhere in the world (certainly not in Australia). Desert for Alfie is 2 scoops of ice-cream, americano (vanilla) y dulce de leche…he’s rugged up in a fleece hoodie and a puffer jacket but obviously pushes through the brain freeze chills. The rest of us share a “vulcano of dulce de leche flan”…well on per couple as you can never have enough flan or DDL. We end the night in the usual fashion, Alfie falls asleep in the van on the drive home, we do a successful transition into his PJs and bed.
3 meses en Argentina 
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