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.
