Mendoza, Argentina

Today we woke up stuffed from our fantastic dinner last night. Argentines eat very late. It was after midnight when we finally finished and that’s been the norm for most of our nice meals. When in Argentina…

Our guide Aida and a new driver picked us up right on time and whisked us away to Familia Zaccardi, one of the biggest wineries in the area. In addition to producing the Santa Julia line of wine, they also have a number of higher end wines of almost any varietal your can imagine. These are the big guys in Mendoza when it come to volume. They also have a well orchestrated tourist infrastructure, including two restaurants, tasting tours, bike tours, and coking classes. We were booked on the full day Zuccardi experience. What a day it was!

We were first greeted with espresso and candies. After a little introduction to the winery we met Aurora, the chef who would lead our cooking class. For the first part of the class it was a private lesson as the other group was late to arrive. So, we got lots of attention.

First course was to make the dough for bread.

We mixed the flour, salt, yeast and other ingredients and kneaded the bread by hand. It took us awhile to get the hang of it but eventually we got it. As the dough was rising we moved on to making empanadas.

Aurora showed us how to make a special onion empanada, a beef version, and one filled with three cheeses. Each one is folded a different way and that’s how you know what’s inside. Steve’s didn’t always look like Aurora’s but it was good for a laugh and they tasted the same.

After empanadas we made pastelitos, little pockets of dough filled with jam. In this case ours were filled with quince, a specialty of the region. The pastelitos are folded into little stars with the jelly in the middle. They are deep fried in olive oil that is produced on site. Out of the fryer they are sprinkled with powdered sugar.

By now the dough had risen and we needed to make our baguettes. Aurora showed us how to roll the dough with our hands and form it into a loaf. You can probably tell from the picture which one is Steve’s. The dough was topped with either oregano or sesame and then put into an outside clay horno, or oven, to be browned. The empanadas were also baked in the horno and it didn’t take long for the tasty treats to be ready to eat.

We had certainly worked up a thirst so we enjoyed the fruits of our labor with a glass of Malbec. While enjoying our first Malbec of the day, we watched as the chef grilled the meats for our lunch. The traditional grill was fueled by burning old vines and it smelled so good!

Following the the cooking class we toured the wine production facilities and enjoyed tasting a Sauvignon Blanc and another Malbec. All of this and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet!

Our lunch at Zuccardi was a traditional parrilla style barbecue.

Along with salad, grilled vegetables, marinated organic tomatoes, they brought out over eight cuts of sizzling meat including, chicken, sausage, ribs, and a variety of cuts of beef. Steve was in heaven and ate almost one of everything. It seemed to go on and on! The meal was accompanied by other Zuccardi wines, a white, rose, red, and late season wine, which is a sweet dessert wine. Dessert was a tender baked apple and ice cream covered in dulce de leche, a special caramel sauce that is served everywhere. Oh, and then we had coffee and cookies. We didn’t return to our hotel until almost 4:30. Once again, stuffed and satisfied.

We may attend tonight’s tasting here at Club Tapiz but will certainly skip dinner. It’s gonna be a rough return to the gym in January and tomorrow we have to do it all again but at different wineries.

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Mendoza, Argentina

Our buddy Julio picked us up before 7 and got us to the domestic airport in Buenos Aires with plenty of time to spare. Buenos Aires has two airports and we’ll be using both on this trip. We arrived to the international airport last Sunday which is north of the city. All domestic flights leave from another airport that’s right near the city center. When we begin our trek home we’ll fly back to the domestic airport and have to take a shuttle to the international airport to catch our flight back to the USA. Sounds a bit complicated but we don’t have to worry about that for more than a week.

Upon on our arrival in Mendoza, on the Argentine national airline, we were met by our guide Aida and driver Walter. They took us on a tour of the city of Mendoza, including a look at the civic center which is home to the oldest Andean flag, representing the region’s relationship with neighboring Chile and Peru.

While in town we stopped to change dollars to pesos at an official cambio. The posted rate was 6:1 but because we are tourists they gave us 9:1. Our guide explained that the “blue” market rate is a relatively new thing, within the last year or so. The Argentine economy is really struggling and the government is trying to control the peso. The blue markets are what happens when the government places restrictions on trade. Everyone we’ve talked to agrees that it’s a mess, but it’s working in our favor at this point. Good time to be a tourist in Argentina.

After a final stops to see the city from the highest point we were driven about 25 minutes south to our home for the next three nights, Club Tapiz. This beautiful 11 room lodge is situated on a vineyard and they have a first class restaurant on site that features food grown on the property.

Our lunch was the best food we’ve had so far and that was just a sandwich. The 6 course dinner menu looks spectacular and it’s on our schedule for this evening.

We we wandered the grounds for awhile and met various dogs who live on the property including a big mama dog and her seven puppies! They are adorable and satisfy our need for dog contact, at least for the time being. Unfortunately, we had to share the puppies with our new friend, Laura, who is eight years old and visiting with her family from Finland.

Laura doesn’t speak English (or Spanish for that matter) but we both understood the language of puppies.

After a stroll through the grounds, admiring the herb garden and robust vines we settled in for a rest before the evening festivities.

Our evening began with the daily Tapiz wine tasting. Seated outside near the vines, with an international group of people, we tasted two of the wines of Tapiz. It’s really casual and relaxed and we met cool people from New Zealand, Ireland, UK, the Netherlands, and more. We were the only Americans in the group.

Following the tasting, most of the group went to the dining room for dinner. We joined them and opted for the 6 course meal, plus a bottle of Tapiz Pinot Noir. Photos of the creative menu and the dishes we enjoyed are attached. For less than $100 we had one of the most amazing meals ever. If we continue like this, they’ll have to roll us home. Luckily, we have to come home. Otherwise we might be in trouble.

Tomorrow we have a cooking class on the schedule, so stay tuned! Love to all!

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Every trip we take includes a trudge, a long walk that seems to go on forever. We’ve trudged all over the world. Today we trudged through Buenos Aires and it was a perfect day for it. Being Christmas, the city was dead. No traffic, no crowds, and a lot of closed stores made for easy exploration of the city’s neighborhoods and parks. Our new Fitbits said we did around nine miles of walking.

We we stopped for pizza in Recoleta and then strolled by the botanical gardens and the zoo.

As the afternoon wore on, more people began to emerge. We finally pooped out at about 4:00 and grabbed a taxi back to the hotel.

It’s very warm here. We saw a sign that said 35 degrees Celsius, which equates to about 95 degrees Fahrenheit and that was at 8:00 pm.

The weather reports said it was over 100 degrees at mid day. That’s no big deal for us, coming from Arizona, but the Porteños are complaining.

Tomorrow we catch an early flight to Mendoza and begin our education of Argentine wines.

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