Mendoza

Our bus the next morning was fairly early, but thankfully when we woke up I was feeling better than the day before. Still not incredible, but well enough that an eight-hour bus ride through the Andes wouldn’t be so bad.The trip through the mountains was fairly beautiful, in its own way. This section of the Andes is quite arid, so it was just mountain rocks all around with very little plants. Near the border we saw what looked to be the world’s tiniest ski resort, though we’re not sure how much snow this area even gets anymore.

I was pretty excited about going to Mendoza as I had been before and really enjoyed it, and I knew Jo would like it, too. It’s got a few things that we both enjoy: mountains, good restaurants, a big park, sunny weather, and wine. Mendoza is the most famous wine region in Argentina and potentially the most famous wine region in all of South America. They are known for their malbec, however, they grow and make a wide variety if grape varietals and wines, and, generally, their wine is really good. When I came here four years ago with my friend Laura from Spain, we did quite a lot of wine tastings. Laura was impressed by the wines, and she is generally much more detail-oriented and critical than I am, so if she enjoyed them then you know it’s good.

Another exciting part about arriving in Mendoza was that, completely by luck, we happened to be in the region at the same time that our friend Juliette from New York was there. She had messaged me a month or so prior letting me know she was going to be travelling in Argentina and gave me her dates for where she would be and when, but at that time I wasn’t 100% sure on Jo and I’s timeline so I told her there was a possibility but I’ll let her know closer-to. As it turns out, our Mendoza dates lined up perfectly. She was also training for the NYC marathon just a couple of weeks later, so she was excited to have some running buddies.

As is normal after a long bus ride, we didn’t do much when we first arrived in Mendoza. We got a coffee and something to eat, did some work, and then went to check into our accomodations. We had rented a room in a guesthouse on a quite street not too far from the center. The house was a really classic, old Argentine-style home. The owner told me that it was almost 100 years old. It had plenty of old wooden cabinets not unlike the ones I’d grown up with in my grandparents’ homes and in our own house, too. In the kitchen, there were shelves upon shelves of different types of olive oils, another product of the region. I guess beyond oporating the guesthouse, the family also has some kind of olive oil business.

The guesthouse also came with an official greeter, a tiny pomerianian named Freddy, and another dog who stayed primarily in the back garden who’s name we could never quite figure out. We discovered the reason why he wasn’t allowed in the house pretty quickly upon arrival. When we went into the back garden, the owner came through behind and gave the bigger dog just enough room to escape into the house. He knew exactly where he was going: straight for the front entrance to ‘mark’ old, wooden welcome desk. It was pretty funny, but also if I am being honest we both felt a bit bad for the dog. We never saw him getting taken out for walks, and with some effort, training, and daily exercise he would probably stop doing that and be a happier dog, in general. He was pretty cute, though, so Jo and I enjoyed playing with him when we could.

Being on a tighter budget, we didn’t make plans to visit lots of wineries, however, there was one experience that I knew I wanted Jo to experience from when I was in Mendoza the first time. This was a full-day tour, cooking class, lunch and wine tasting at Lagarde Bodega. Laura and I both agreed it was our favourite activity that we did. The last time, the principal activity was the cooking class. From reading online, I could see that the experience had evolved and now the cooking class would just be a short portion of it, so I was curious to see what it would be like this time around.

We arrived the next morning for 11am and the place was just as beautiful as I remember it being. It’s only about a 20-minute drive outside of the city, but it is so peaceful on the property you’d think you were much further away.

The decor is all light-coloured wood with french green walls and elements. It feels natural and relaxed, but still polished and intentional. There is a gorgeous chandelier made of wood and straw that I remembered from my first visit; a true work of art. The place is very open concept, with the kitchen feeling almost like a (big, chic, and airy) home kitchen. The back wall is floor-to-cieling glass windows and doors, but they are kept open almost all the time considering that it doesn’t rain very often in Mendoza. It has a lovely patio that backs into the vineyard, and speckled throughout the vineyard are olive trees. Our guide explained that this was part of a government program to encourage olive production, where wineries get certain financial benefits if they plant an olive tree per a specific amount of square meters of terrain. This works for the wineries, as the vines and the olive trees have a symbiotic relationship.

Our morning started out with a beautiful little breakfast on the terrace. There was delicious coffee, yogurt, berries, homemade granola, and some classic french-style vennoiserie. The Magdalenes were fantastic. There was just two other people on the tour with us that day, a mother-daughter pair from Buenos Aires. We chatted and ate with them while waiting for the tour to begin.

Our first guide came to greet us and took us on a tour through the vineyard as well as the restaurant’s small, permaculture farm. The last time I was in Mendoza it was winter, so the types of plants and vegetables in the garden were quite different. This time, being spring, the garden was bursting with all kinds of edible flowers, as well as flowers that would soon morph into fruits and veggies. We stopped at a gorgeous picnic table nestled underneath one of the olive trees that was made of a large plank of wood and had tree stumps for stools. There, our guide served us a homemade infusion - a special herbal tea that her grandmother used to make her. She explained that the flavour changed depending on time of year. This one tasted of strawberries, thanks to the small morsels of dried strawberries in the blend.

After this, we returned to the restaurant, where our next guide was waiting for us. He poured us all a glass of wine and gave us aprons to wear - it was time for the (mini) cooking class. The last time I was here, the main event of the day was a cooking class. We started the day with a glass of wine in our hands, toured the vineyard and garden, then returned to the kitchen to make a homemade stuffed pasta dish. This time, our guide was teaching us how to make tortillas raspadas, a traditional flatbread from Mendoza made with beef tallow, aka lard. These are dense, air-free flatbreads made without yeast. He taught us how to make them, then they were taken away to be baked. We would get them back later at the end of the day to take home with us. Jo and I taste-tested ours the next day, but if I am being honest we weren’t really big fans. The beef fat gives them a very specific taste, image bread with a kind of meat taste, which we didn’t particularly enjoy. I also found them to be too salty.

Once the class was done, we were directed to our tables where the tasting menu lunch would begin. This was one of my first-ever Michelin Star meal experiences, so I was excited to see what they would bring out. There were 10 courses in total, each paired with a different wine from the Largarde vineyard collection. While all the wines were good, there were a few stand-outs for both of us. The first was a white blend that came with the second or third course. It was so complex and the flavour changed several times from the time that you first put some in your mouth to the flavours that lingered after you had finally swallowed it. One of the courses was a sauvignon blanc paired with an asparagus dish, and while neither the wine nor the asparagus individually were our favourites, together they were truly fantastic. The final two dishes also stood out to us. There was a beef tartare tartlette paired with a malbec, and then finally a beautiful argentine steak paired with a cabernet sauvignon. Both were incredible, but the last one was truly la piece de resistance. I’d never seen Jo so happy. The steak was perfectly done and practically melted in your mouth, and the wine was beautiful; complex, strong but delicate, round and balanced. Jo nearly cried, saying that when he closed his eyes and had some wine and steak, he could almost imagine that he was back in Saint Emilion, in France. The meal ended with a light dessert paired with a late harvest wine. The entire experience was incredible. Each dish was beautifully presented, the sommeliers made sure that we well understood each wine and what made it unique, and all the pairings were wonderfully done. Throughout the meal, the mother and daughter who we did the vineyard visit with kept looking over at us and saying how delicious everything was. If you ever go to Mendoza and only do one winery experience, this is definitely the one to do.

By the time we got home, all the food and wine had made us quite sleepy (and very full) so we went to bed fairly early.

The next morning we had plans to meet up with our friend Juliette for a run in the big city park of Mendoza. Unfortunately, when we woke up, Jo was feeling quite ill. I think he had caught what I had in our last day in Santiago, and the previous day of heavier-than-usual food and wine, coupled with poor sleep, didn’t do him any favours. He stayed in bed and I went out to meet Juliette by myself. Seeing Juliette again was fantastic. I first met her when she and the other Midnight Runners San Fransico captains came to Mexico City for the city’s official Midnight Runners’ launch party. We became fast friends, and since then I have visited her in SF and she visited me in Toronto. We ran around the park chatting and catching each other up in our lives. Juliette had moved back to NYC from SF about a year prior, so she was filling me in on what it has been like living back in her hometown of Queens, NYC, and I filled her in on stories from living in Paris and then our trip. We then parted ways as she had some wine tours booked that day with her friends, agreeing to meet up the following evening for dinner.

The rest of the day we laid low and got caught up on work while Jo recovered from feeling ill. The guesthouse had a full kitchen that we could use, so we took advantage of being able to cook at home instead of having to go out all of the time. The next day Jo was feeling better so he and I ran to and then around the park together. In the evening, we met up with Juliette and her friends for dinner, before finally parting ways. We were all headed for Buenos Aires the next day, except they were flying early in the morning and we were taking a night bus that departed in the evening. By the time we would arrive in Buenos Aires, they would all be flying home. Though we would have liked to have perhaps visited a couple more wineries, particularly in the Valle de Uca, as well as some of the hot springs in the area, overall we had a nice, relaxing time in Mendoza. Now it was time to head to Buenos Aires and reconnect with Julie’s friends there.