Fine Wine & Fabulous Food In Mendoza

We headed to Mendoza full of excitement as its Argentina’s wine capital producing 80% of the countries wine every year. We’d already enjoyed some fantastic Argentinian wines over the past ten days and were eager to learn more about them plus, of course taste them. Steve had organised a very special date with a premium bodega through his previous employer too! Good times guaranteed. Unfortunately our 24 hour bus ride from Puerto Madryn was not a great one due to only Spanish films and no wine but, we did play bingo in Spanish! We didn’t win though and were full of envy when the bingo champ collected his bottle of wine!

The highly rated Banana hostel with a *swoon* swimming pool awaited us but it definitely did not live up to the reviews. When shown to our private room we were given sheets and pillowcases to administer ourselves and on top of this the carpet was dirty and the bathroom smelly. Our conversation with the receptionist went something like this:

Sticky: “Just to confirm. We pay you to stay here and we make our own bed?” 

Banana: “Yes.” 

Sticky: “Hmm. Well could you at least hoover the carpet?”

Banana: “No. We don’t really vacuum the floors here.”

Sticky: “Okay. Bye!”

Outside we jumped in a taxi and managed to find a quaint hotel called The Petit Hotel. For just a couple of pounds more than the grubby hostel we had a lovely clean room, ace shower and fast wifi which was very much welcomed after our now 26 hours on the road. The lady managing was also very friendly and we were much closer to the central plaza. 

"So delicious!"

Once we felt human again we went on the hunt for some Argentinian food, after our less than inspiring 3 courses on the bus we had decided that we deserved a treat. It was Sunday afternoon so most things were closed or very quiet due to the daily siesta, but after some dedicated pavement pounding we hit the jackpot at La Lucia restaurant.

"Toad vs Steak"

The food and wine here were both divine. Vicky opted for the Pescado Del Dia which was a perfectly grilled Black Hake with calamari and avocado purée. Steve of course had a big hunk of ribeye steak smothered in a delicious mustard sauce and gigantic chips. It goes without saying we had wine, a local Malbec grown at around 1300m ASL by bodega Andeluna - lovely! This meal was so good that it was on a par with our first Parilla steak dinner in Buenos Aires.

  

"Speechless."

At breakfast the next morning Steve was in his element feasting on the limitless supply of custard based pastries. We were both glad we’d switched hotels and eagerly awaited our driver who was going to take us to Bodega Salentein for our private tour and tasting. It’s a highly reputable bodega that Steve has worked with in the past so we were confident a fantastic day lay ahead.

Our transport for the day was a sleek 4x4 driven by the chatty and knowledgable Rueben. We were driven over 100km from our hotel through the land of the Bodegas with the Andes always in view on our left, the landscape was absolutely beautiful and there was literally vineyard after vineyard all around. There are over 1,200 wineries in Mendoza and 120 are open to the public. Some of these bodegas produce wine end to end, some grow the grapes to sell and/or export and the rest export wine for the buyer to age themselves, for the latter the wine must say 'Made In Argentina.'

To Vicky’s surprise Bodega Salentein was at the foot of the Andes. As we pulled up the driveway we were in awe of the modern building design and stunning setting of this modern bodega. We had no idea how close to the Andes it would be and the clear blue sky added to the beauty of the setting. 

We were greeted by Marcelo our private tour guide and first we walked through a vineyard to another building where the wine making process takes place. Inside and out this building was beautiful and we learned that the famous architects Bormida and Yanzon had designed each of the buildings at Bodega Salentein. 

"Merlot grapes almost ready for harvesting."

As soon as we entered all we could smell was wine - yum! The first floor was occupied by lots of huge stainless steel tanks where the grapes are left to ferment and turn into wine and/or be stored until they are bottled. 

We were also allowed a peek behind the plastic curtains to see the freshly harvested grapes being sorted by some hi-tech machinery and by chance a newly pressed bunch were ready to be added to a stainless steel tank. We watched fascinated as it was lifted to the top of and then pushed along the tracks level with the height of the steel tanks. 

Also on this level was a special section for the Reserva wines that are aged in huge French oak barrels (they cost 18,000 Euro each), this room has been specially designed to keep the temperature stable for these premium wines. A worker was also 'stirring' the wine in one of the barrels whilst we were there, he was pumping it out of the bottom back into the top and it smelt beautiful. 

Next we headed downstairs to Bodega Salentein's cellar where row after row of beautiful oak barrels were stored. It was a stunning room and intentionally chilly making it perfect for storing wine. 

The cellar had a circular design and in the centre was a piano - Salentein often hold charity concerts here as the amphitheatre style layout means it has excellent acoustics, when you stand on the centre point your voice echoes as if you have microphone. 

"Vino!"

It was soon time for the main event of wine tasting and they have three stunning underground rooms for this, two for group tastings and a boardroom which is normally only used in very special occasions. 

In each room the walls were lined floor to ceiling with wine bottles and one even had a cheeky mouse hanging out in the racks.

The boardroom was very elegant with the biggest marble table we’d ever seen so we were delighted when we found out we had a private tasting in here. We really got the VIP treatment! 

"A VIP tasting for two!"

Some other tourists on a group visit ended up photographing us during our tasting through the door window, they must have thought we were some scruffy big-wigs which amused us greatly!

Our tasting session was very relaxed and Marcelo was great fun, we did have a spittoon each but neither of us used it - why waste great wine?! We enjoyed five generous sized taster servings of five lovely wines, our favourites of which were Salentein Single Vineyard Pinot Noir, Salentein Reserva Malbec and one of their most luxurious wines Numina Gran Corte. Almost two hours later we emerged slightly fuzzy headed and ravenous for lunch in their Killka restaurant which had more gorgeous views of this bodega and its Andes backdrop.

Lunch was fabulous especially with a bottle of Salentein  Brut Nature which Vicky had been craving for months - we both definitely have Prosecco withdrawal since being away. Also, we couldn’t resist purchasing a couple of bottles of the Salentein Reserva Malbec to takeaway, they were a bargain at 80 ASR (£6) a bottle, in a restaurant you can expect to pay £40 for this in the UK.

Lucky for us our wine tasting didn’t end here and Rueben kindly drove us to a much smaller bodega closer to Mendoza for a free wine tasting session. Bonus! We pulled into a small gravel driveway of someones house and tagged on to a wine tasting that was already in session. The guy leading it was the eccentric and friendly owner of this bodega, of course he could only speak Spanish so we were were a bit clueless what he was saying but Reuben translated when necessary. We tasted (aka. swallowed) another three red wines and as we were handed back our glasses Vicky embarrassingly broke a glass. No fuss was made though so we assume it happens all the time. Phew!

"Such an stunning location!

We were back at our hotel around 6pm very tired so it was an early night for us. The rest of our time in Mendoza was spent wandering aimlessly around the town, its a quite a pleasant place but there isn’t tonnes of character. The whole place was rebuilt in the 1860’s after an earthquake flattened the city. There are many vineyards in Maipu within cycling distance of Mendoza's centre but as we had been spoilt at Salentein and our next stop was another wine growing region called Cafayate we didn't check them out. In total we spent three nights in Mendoza which was the perfect amount of time for us.

Have you been to Mendoza before? Which were your favourite bodegas?