Mendoza: Friday 28 November

Wine tour day to the Luján de Cuyo area, close by to Maipú where we are staying. It is extremely picturesque with the Andes in the distance. We are at almost 750 m here. It's hard to believe.

We are driven along roads lined with magnificent old plane trees and enter the wine-growling area where there are also many olive trees.

We visited 3 wineries today: all different. More below about these. But first: the views today were just sensational!

Our first winery was Achavel Ferrer where Phillipe entertained us with his vast knowledge. The winemaker, Roberto Cipresso, is from Tuscany in Italy. We bought a Quimera 2011 here (the only thing we could afford, with some of the wines well over 2000 pesos, that is $US200 plus!!). It has an incredible long dry finish due he told us to the petit verdot; it is a blend comprising 40% old vine malbec with pertit verdot, cab sauvignan, merlot & cab franc & has been awarded 84 points by the American wine critic, Robert Parker. They sacrifice up to 80% of their crop in order to maintain quality & blend before fermentation, which is quite amazing!

Of the 3 wineries we visited today, this one gave us the strongest sense of the winemaking process & the passion of the winemakers for their wine. It was a good start to the day!

The second winery was Viña Cobos which was memorable for the delightful Lorena. We had a lovely long chat to her about the wines but also about her studies. She studied English at university & then after teaching for a number of years, she studied privately in hospitality & tourism. She is now studying to be a sommelier with a prestigious school. She is smart & very personable. We really loved her.

The last winery was Ruca Malen, known as a 'design' winery, where we had the most wonderful lunch after a tour. 

We saw a scissor bird!

The wines were matched with the courses & the entire thing was wonderful (see menu below). We had some interesting chat with Neil from Austin, Texas & his travelling friend at the adjacent table. Austin sounds interesting: lots of IT startup companies; he called it a 'hippy' town; lots of people have moved there from California.

Anyway to my friend Kim: Neil from Austin, Texas says that this taking of photos is called 'food porn'!! (We all laughed when he said this)!

After we got back to our posada from our winery tour, we walked about half a kilometer down the road to a very interesting wine museum called La Rural started by an Italian, Felipe Rutini, in 1885.

Unbelievably, we backed up for dinner at our posada - just a light meal! And for dessert we had a lovely light crepe with dulce de leche (very healthy, not! - made by heating sweetened condensed milk until it turns a caramel colour) and icecream, of course! The dulce de leche seems to be very popular throughout South America.

MENU (Ruca Malen):

• First appetiser - Fresh quinoa salad, fresh onion, Granny Smith apple, lemon drops, spring water sorbet & fresh herbs; with Yauquen Chardonnay 2013
• Second appetiser - Beetroot with goat cheese flakes, drops of olive oil, balsamic vinegar reduction & raisins; with Yauquen Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignan 2013
• Starter - Crusted smoked bacon, pine mushrooms powder, smoked cheese cream, dried olives, carrots, onions & crispy sweet potatoes; with Ruca Malen Cabernet Sauvignan 2011
• Main course - Grilled tenderloin steak with roasted potatoes, sun dried tomatoes, dry prunes & vegetables sauteed in olive oil; with Ruca Malen Malbec 2012 AND Kinien Malbec 2010
• Dessert - Selection of traditional country sweets with honey & orange icecream, decorated with crunchy oranges; with Ruca Maken Brut Chardonnay-Pinot Noir