Altos Tiempos In the Shadow of the Andes

Three Days. Four Kilos.

Sunday 7 August 2016

Is it possible to eat two five course meals in one day? Is it feasible to put on four kilos in three days? These were the questions we asked ourselves as we started our food coma frenzy in Mendoza. Three days of food and wine gluttony in a city that produces excellent Malbec amongst other wines and matches it with outstanding food.

Arrived in Mendoza on Sunday afternoon after a slightly hellish (but to be expected) long flight from Melbourne-Auckland-Santiago-Mendoza. Total travelling time 19 hours and 30 minutes. A little worse for wear, we had found the lovely little Air B&B that we had rented for our three days and had a nap. Refreshed we set out on the first leg of our food coma mission. We headed to Sieta Cocinas (Seven Kitchens) a restaurant that we had visited during our 2012 trip to Mendoza.

To get the most out of our short time in Mendoza we had organised a driver and had made reservations at some of the top wine estates in the region. Mendoza has three distinct appellations (Lujan de Cuyo; Maipu; and the Uco Valley) and we were on a mission to check them all out. Our first day we got up early to head off to the most distant of the three appellations, the Uco Valley. This is the newest and probably the most highly regarded wine growing region in Mendoza and it’s famous for its high altitude wine growing and of course, its Malbec wines.

Our first stop was the Salentien winery. The thing that we remembered from our first trip to Mendoza back in 2012 was the level of investment being made in some of the large wineries and also in the bodega, and Salentien brought that memory back into sharp perspective. Here the wine is made in what can only be described as a cathedral, complete with its temple-like barrel room deep underground. A grand piano sits at its centre, where the barrels are serenaded – I don’t think it made any difference to the wine, but hey, if you’ve got a vision for how you want to make your wine and you’ve got shit loads of money then why not? Other than the very impressive cellars, the winery has a nice small collection of art, which paired with the views of the Andes and a few nice wines made the experience very enjoyable.

Continuing the Wine and Food Frenzy

Sunday 7 August 2016

Next stop was the nearby Andeluna winery. This was a very different experience to the over-the-top set up at Salentien. This place was also massive compared to wineries in Australia, but it had a certain je ne sais quoi and was a very relaxing place to chill out and just soak up the atmosphere, with views over the vineyards and the spectacular Andes as a backdrop. Our host was the head chef and we just had a really cool time talking about food, wine and this beautiful place. Somehow we lost track of time (well what do you expect after having around 10 wines before lunch with a jetlag addled brain?) and we were now running late for our next appointment (and some much needed food). We got back in the car and gave our driver permission to drive a little faster!

For lunch we had reserved a table at the newest of the wineries to be built in the Uco Valley, Zuccardi’s Piedra Infinita. Zuccardi has been making wine in Mendoza for a long time and is one of the most well regarded wineries in the region – they opened their new facility in April 2016 and it’s a testament to the Uco Valley’s growing importance in the fine wine scene here. Where Salentien reminded us more of a cathedral, Piedra Infinita was more like a spaceship, complete with alienesque eggs inside where the wine was being fermented ready for its birth into great wine.

The architecture of the new winery was something to behold and the views from the dining room were amazing – here you were right up close to the high Andes mountains and it was breath-taking. As we were running late, the maître d’ informed us that the kitchen was closing and that he would have to check if they could still make lunch for us. Thankfully he came back with the good news that lunch was on. We had organised to have the degustation menu with matching wines, needless to say we weren’t disappointed. After soaking in the view with the fabulous wines and stunning food, we took a tour of the wine making facility. Everything here is new and the wine making facility was a one-of-a-kind. All wine was fermented in large concrete tanks that were shaped like eggs or amphora’s. We’ve been to a lot of wineries, but have never seen anything like it.

After a pretty hard-core food and wine day, we had an hour-or-so drive back to Mendoza city, where we promptly fell asleep. We got back to our apartment just in time for a siesta – hey when in Argentina do what the Argentinians do.

For some strange reason the people here eat dinner late – its very uncommon to arrive at a restaurant for dinner before 10pm – so siesta time was working well for our itinerary. Tonight we had dinner at a place called Ocho Cepes which was a bit more laid back than the Siete Cosinas restaurant from the night before. We had the steak (half a portion each and still it hung over the plate). The steak was perfectly seasoned and was really tasty – yum!

Soldiering On

Monday 8 August 2016

The next day we had a bit of free time before heading back out to the wineries, so we decided to go for a walk around town. Before we left Australia, someone mentioned that we should go to the local market and try the empanadas. Mendoza city is designed around a grid pattern, with a number of nice squares that ring the main plaza (apparently the city layout was designed following a large earthquake and the squares were built into the fabric of the city as an evacuation place for people in the event that the city suffered any more large quakes). After a short walk down through the pretty tree-lined streets, we arrived at our destination. Its always interesting to visit markets when you’re on holidays because you get a much better feeling for how the people there live (not to mention that you get to see some pretty interesting types of foods). Of course when we found the empanada shop, Michelle just had to buy some – we needed some breakfast after all.

We just made it back to our apartment in time to drop off the empanadas before heading off on another day of wine and food. This time we had reserved a tasting at the Mendel winery. We had previously tried some of the wines from Mendel back in Melbourne during the ‘Malbec world day’ and wanted to try them when we were here. We both agreed that having the tour of Mendel was one of the most enjoyable wine tours and tastings that we’ve ever experience. Mendel is not a large winery and its not a fancy winery in the sense of monumental architecture, but what it does have is simply amazing wine. Our host, Silvana, was fantastic. We had such a good time we got stuck there longer than our itinerary had allowed for, so we were late for lunch again.

Lunch was booked at El Enimigo in the Maipu district – this winery is an offshoot of the more famous Catena Zapata (which we would be visiting the next day) and is a new project from Alejandro Vigil and Adrianna Catena. On arrival we happened to be met by Alejandro himself, which was a bit of a treat for wine geeks like us. We were there for the food, but of course there’s always going to be wine when you visit a winery for lunch. We had a choice of mains, Michelle going for the steak, Trevor going for the rabbit.

Turns out Trevor made the right choice as it was the best thing he’d eaten since arriving in Argentina (which says a lot considering all the gourmet food we’d had). Michelle’s steak on the other hand, while very tasty was just ginormous, I mean maybe 700 grams – not sure who could actually get through that much meat.

After lunch we had yet another winery to visit, this time Pulenta Estate, which is just near the boundary between Lujon de Cuyo and the Uco Valley. Here again, the architecture was pretty amazing. The owners had the Argentinian dealership for Porsche and Ferrari, so they had a bit of money to spend on making the winery look pretty cool. We had a tour of the wine making facilities and then we got down to the business of drinking wine. After having the pre lunch wines, the wines with lunch and now having before us another line up of fabulous wine, we hate to admit it, but we were a bit knackered and it was a struggle to get through the wine – but we put our best foot forward and solidered on. Again, we got in the car and passed out for the drive home (followed by a siesta of course). For dinner, we’d had a few recommendations to try Ceibo, which luckily for us was just a few blocks from our apartment. The place has a great wine list (of course) and the food has a real focus on local Mendocinian fair. We started with empanadas, which were delicious and for mains Trevor had a goat pie and Michelle had the salmon pasta, but surprisingly the best thing we had was the pear and fig salad which was delicious. We washed it all down with a bottle of Altos Las Hormigas 2012 Malbec which was from one of the wineries that we had tried to visit, but alas had no facilities to handle visitors – at least we got to taste their fabulous wine.

Another Day, Another Gluttony

Tuesday 9 August 2016

For our last day we had made reservations for another punishing round of wineries and a long lunch – this time all in Lujon de Cuyo. First we headed off to Fabre Montmayou’s winery to pick up some their highly regarded wine. This place doesn’t do the full tourist thing and the company we’d hired to take us around had never visited here before. Thankfully this stop didn’t have any wine tasting (it was only 9:45am!),

but nevertheless, we got to see the wine making facilities and also the opportunity to buy a bottle of their Gran Vin, which, based on a number of reviews, was one of Argentina’s most highly rated wines – at around AUD$40 per bottle it would have been great to get some more, but alas we were already approaching the maximum weight limits on our luggage – so no more wine (for now).

Next stop was a relatively new winery called MaterVini (Mother of All Wine) which was recently founded by Santiago Achaval one of the founding partners and wine makers at Achaval Ferrera (for those of you who don’t know Achaval Ferrera is one of the most famous fine wine makers in Argentina). As it turns out today was the day the winery had organised a mobile bottling plant to bottle up their newest vintage of wines. This was very fortuitous for us as the owner was on the premises and we had the opportunity to meet him and talk a little bit about his new winery and his wine philosophy. Again, the wine geeks in us got a little excited at this point.

After tasting a number of the wines, we agreed that his new venture was definitely a good thing. Despite our impending luggage issue we decided to buy another bottle. By this stage we’d had a bit to drink and needed to get some food in our bellies. Luckily for us, lunch was just down the road.

For lunch we’d booked the degustation menu and wine pairing at the Casarena winery. If we hadn’t mentioned many times already before, it has to be said again, this is one of the most stunning wine regions in the world – the views across the vineyards to the high Andes are awesome. We had our table set up with the most beautiful views and, again, the food didn’t disappoint. We were having such lovely weather too, so today, despite it being middle of winter, it was windless, around 21 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

On such a lovely day they left the big glass sliding doors open so we had an uninterrupted view.

There was a dog that belonged to the winery and it was captivating to watch him as he encouraged the diners in the restaurant to throw him some food (which Trevor did – a nice chunk of juicy Argentinian steak). The dog really knew his audience and played it up to his full potential.

Trevor said it reminded him of his dog Bambi, who would go up to the barbeque area on top of Arthurs Seat on weekends begging for food from hapless tourists – a well worn and effective strategy in the dog world it seems. While the food was awesome, the wine here was only so-so, but we were here primarily for the food, so it wasn’t an issue.

Following lunch we headed off to our last winery visit for the Mendoza part of our holiday. One of the wineries that kicked off the fine wine scene in Argentina and really put Mendoza on the map is Catena Zapata, and it was here were we chose to have our final tasting experience. I know we keep harping on it, but the architecture of some of these wineries is really something to behold. Catena Zapata is one of these wineries. Sitting in the middle of the vineyard is this Mayan-like pyramid, which truly is a temple to South American wine.

We’d organised a semi private tasting, and thankfully the other people never showed, so we had the luck to have the place to ourselves. Our guide was really fantastic and was one of the best wine educators we’d ever come across. Not only was she very knowledgeable about the Catena Zapata wines, she really made an effort to try to teach us to think a bit more deeply about the wine. Funny, after all this time going to wine tastings and touring wineries we found out that we still had a lot to learn about wine – who would have known? At the end of the tasting, something very unusual happened. Our guide said that she felt that drinking wine was something more than just having a glass to drink, but was something deeper and for her, she said that the tango was something special and so she wanted to sing us a tango (yes like the famous Argentinian dance, turns out they also sing the tango – who knew?).

She was an excellent singer, but it was pretty unusual to have this very emotional singing happening during a wine tasting – a first for us.
Exhausted and burned out from three days of wine and food we decided to stay home and get an early night, which we spent figuring out how to pack all our wine so we didn’t breach the per-bag luggage limit for our flight the next morning - not an easy task to do seeing we’d bought a lot of wine (more than 10kg extra luggage to fit in).

Water Water Everywhere

Wednesday 10 August 2016

Our next destination was Iguazu Falls. Door to door was 12 hours which included a couple of flights and the obligatory waiting at airports. Our hotel was really nice and in the jungle down by the river, but it was getting dark so we retired early. After getting up early we decided the best course of action was to head over to the Brazilian side of the falls and get that out of the way so we could concentrate on the Argentinian side for the afternoon and the next morning before catching our flight back to Santiago We’d heard a lot about the Brazilian side of the falls being inferior to the Argentinian side, but when we got there we were very pleasantly surprised that they were in fact pretty awesome. The falls span a huge area and everywhere you look you can see water cascading over the rocks. The walkways take you right over the river to the base of the falls, where you get covered in mist – plastic ponchos are in vogue here as Michelle can attest.

After spending the morning checking out the falls we headed back across the boarder to our hotel for a quick lunch before visiting the Argentinian section – we thought if the Brazil side is supposed to be inferior to the Argentinian side, then we would be in for a real treat. Side note – we didn’t get stopped by the Brazilian immigration crossing the boarder on the way over or the way back, so we were a bit miffed that we didn’t get a stamp in our passports for our first visit to Brazil – at least we didn’t have to have the rigmarole of getting visas before we left (Brazil waived the visa requirements during the Rio Olympic games – so at least we saved some money). When we arrived at the park entrance, the guy at the ticket office suggested that we catch the train to the end of the line to the Devils Throat falls (Garganta del Diablo) in order to make sure we saw that before the park closed. The train in the park is a tiny diesel locomotive that pulls about 20 small wagons ferrying people to the main trails in the park. After about 30 minutes on the train (including a couple of stops) we got to the end where we still had a bit of walk to get to the main attraction. The walk is an elevated platform that takes you directly over the top of the river and its various branches. As you approach the Devils Throat you can see the mist of the waterfalls rising up in the sky, and of course, the sound of the waterfalls is ever present. After about 15 minutes walking, we were there – wow!!! Here at the Devils Throat, there’s so much water cascading over the falls its energy is amazing. We took some video, but it really doesn’t capture the intensity of being there.

Iguazu Falls Brazil Side #1 from Trevor Angst on Vimeo.

Iguazu Falls Brazil Side #2 from Trevor Angst on Vimeo.

Iguazu Falls Argentina Side Devil's Throat from Trevor Angst on Vimeo.

After spending a bit of time hanging around the Devils Throat we realised that it was getting close to park closing time, so we headed back to the train station. As the train departs every thirty minutes we had a bit of time waiting at the station. Next to the station they were selling rafting trips down the river and they really weren’t that expensive, so we decided to do it, and as it turns out this was very much the right decision. As it was the end of the day, this was the last raft trip back and the whole park was starting to get empty. Being on the river gave the place a whole other perspective and it was a really relaxing way to end our day. As a bonus we saw two different species of Toucans which were really special to see in the wild.

Second Day at the Falls

Thursday 11 August 2016

The next day we got up early again – this was our last chance to see the falls and as we were flying out in the afternoon had to get all our stuff packed to be ready to head off to the airport. The day earlier we’d gotten to the park at around 2pm and it was already starting to empty out. Getting to the park early today meant that there were hardly any people about yet, so we took the opportunity to get to the trails we missed the day before which would take us along lower elevations. Although not as intense as the immense power of the Devils Throat falls, the sheer number of large falls in the park mean that everywhere you go you get some pretty amazing views.

We meandered our way around the paths and saw some of the Coatis which hang around hoping for food. Very cute but ‘no touch’ as bitey-scratchy.

A Visit to Viña Errazuriz

Saturday 13 August 2016

Our next destination was Chile and the Aconcagua Valley just north of Santiago which was on our ‘to do’ list for two reasons - one: it has one of Chile’s most celebrated vineyards (Viña Errazuriz) and two: it has one of South America’s premier ski resorts (Portillo Resort).

We stayed at a beautiful old Hacienda called Casa San Regis. We were lucky to get some beautiful sunsets across the Andes and over the grape vines.

Then onto our next wine and food destination Viña Errazuriz where Trevor had booked us a wine tour and lunch. This is in the Aconcagua Valley where the river flows down from the highest peak in the Andes (6,961 metres). It was a beautiful old winery and we got to taste some of the best wines in Chile as part of the tour. As good as the tour was, lunch was amazing and afterwards we got to walk around the beautiful property. Although it was just over the Andes from Mendoza, the feel of the place was completely different. They don’t make Malbecs here, they predominately make Cabernet, Carménère and Bordeaux blends.