April 17, 2025 Breakfast - Toasted Baguette spread with orange marmalade and garnished with slices of cheese and ham. Olive Oil tasting and Wine Tasting, Dinner - with Marcelo and Andrea at Oriste

April 17, 2025 Breakfast - Toasted Baguette spread with orange marmalade and garnished with slices of cheese and ham. Olive Oil tasting and Wine Tasting, Dinner - with Marcelo and Andrea at Oriste

We awakened at 8:45 and I showered and dressed.

I then toasted two slices of baguette and spread them with orange marmalade and garnished them with slices of cheese and ham.

We drove to Corazondelunlunta, an olive oil orchard and production facility in lunlunta that also produces balsamic vinegar at 11:00.

It is a partnership of several important winery owners that was started in 2006 that includes some fancy architecture and modern equipment for processing and storing olive oil.  

We were given a tour of the process of washing and crushing the olives and leaves and then the extraction of the oil. Corazon makes three types of olive oil. One is a blend of there species of olives in extra Virgin, and the last is an extra virgin of the local olive.  The local olive is unique because over the hundreds of years of olive cultivation in Mendoza several imported species hybridized into a new species, auraco.

This site explains the production of olive oil and why Argentinian olive oil is special.  https://www.oia.com.ar/index.php/en/the-best-olive-oil-is-argentine-and-is-produced-by-a-historic-factory/

What I found interesting were two things. One, man cannot improve on nature. There is no capacity to manipulate the olive oil flavor as there is in wine. The terroir can be changed and oils from different species can be blended, but the challenge is to preserve as much of the naturally occurring polyphenols in the olive, which begins to deteriorate upon picking.

We also watched the balsamic production machine that cooks artisanal wine vinegar at low temperature for seven days until it darkens and concentrates the sugars in the wine vinegar.  

Finally, we did a tasting with a taste of Cabernet Franc, three olive oils, balsamic vinegar, and bread slices. The interesting thing I noticed that was noted by the guide was that one can actually taste the polyphenol at the back of one’s throat in a good extra virgin olive oil.

What are the requirements for extra virgin olive oil?

To receive the top grade of “extra virgin”, olive oil has to pass two important tests. First, its acidity level cannot be higher than 0.8%. This can only be measured in a lab.

According to the IOC’s exact standards, an olive oil’s oleic acid (an omega-9 fatty acid) must not exceed 0.8 grams per 100 grams to get the high-quality “extra virgin” appellation.

Olive oils with an acidity level higher than 0.8 but less than 2 grams per 100 grams, receive a second-class grade of "virgin olive oil." Anything above this level and up to to 3.3 grams per 100 grams is considered a lower quality “ordinary virgin olive oil”.

We asked the guide to recommend a small artisanal winery and she recommended Kalos wines, so we drove there around 12:00.

Kalos is a family owned vineyard producing exceptionally high quality wines.

We took the two wine tasting of the three premium wines and the 5 more commercial wines. Our guide was very knowledgeable in the wines and introduced us to her four favorite wines.

We all agreed that the 59 Cabernet Franc was our favorite. We have been surprised by Cabernet Franc’s elegance and drinkability.

I had intended to drink Malbec and Torrontes and find myself drinking Cabernet Franc and Tannat.

There are over 1000 wineries in the Mendoza region and most of them have the most highly developed processing and fermentation equipment and highly skilled winemakers.

Kalos was not exceptional but not disappointing. The tip off was when our guide poured us an extra taste of the Tannat and told us that Tannat usually has a lot of acidity and in this case the winemaker tamed that acidity by aging the wine in French oak barrels for three months and still thought the winemaker tamed that was showing too much acidity, so he aged it for three more months in American oak barrels. It was a very smooth tasting wine. If that is the skill used to make wine at a small family owned winery, imagine what skill is available at a huge production facility.

In fact we drove to one of the most famous Wineries, Casa Vigil, after our tasting at Kalos at 2:30, but left soon after we arrived because it was mobbed with people and our guide at Corazondelunlunta had not been able to get us a reservation. Corazondelunlunta and Casa Vigil at under common ownership.

So we drove home and rested until 6:00 and dressed and drove to the ultra modern home of Marcelo and Andrea in an exclusive massive gated community on the outskirts of Mendoza. Billy’s friend David who is their accountant introduced us and they lived in Dallas for over 10 years so their English is wonderful.  

After a glass of Cabernet Franc and a few appetizers they drove us about three

miles to an exclusive restaurant at the highest point of the development affiliated with a swanky hotel with a panoramic view of the city. I think the restaurant’s name was Oriste.

The entrance was dominated by a large replica of a stone spear.

We walked down to the cave, which gave us an idea of how to remodel our basement into a similar wine cave.

We were joined by Marcelo’s brother, Daniel, and his wife, who is a doctor.

The menu was not very extensive so it was easy to order. There was a parilla blazing in the glassed in kitchen. Billy ordered a grilled sirloin steak, Suzette ordered Rabbit stew, Elaine and Andria ordered rainbow trout grilled and Marcelo ordered a pasta dish. I ordered a sweetbreads appetizer and a garden salad.

Daniel ordered steak Milanesa, which is a flat steak breaded with egg and bread crumbs and sautéed, like wienershnitzel and then garnished with cheese and tomato sauce and baked in the oven until the cheese melts.

We started with a basket of breads and then empanadas and wine.

Then in about fifteen minutes the food was served.

My small round tender sweetbread was garnished with a roll of tomato and a roll of pimiento leaned against a medium puddle of mashed potatoes. It was delicious. When Marcelo saw what I had ordered he said he has a man’s group asado lunch every Wednesday and this week he cooked sweetbreads. Billy and I commented on the way Mother would soak the sweetbreads overnight. Marcelo said his method was to soak the sweetbreads in lemon juice for an hour before cooking to tenderize them and to squeeze lots of lemon juice on them while they are cooking. I could taste the lemon juice, so the restaurant had used Marcelo’s method.

Even though I had only a small appetizer Daniel gave me a taste of his Milanesa and Suzette shared her rabbit stew with me.

Suzette’s rabbit was tender but did not have a lot of flavor. I liked it a lot.

The salad had a green goddess dressing and Parmesan cheese and toasted almonds and two kinds of lettuce, mostly romaine, so it was like a Cesar salad.

After we finished the entrees Marcello and Andrea ordered one of each of the main desserts, Dulce de Leche with ice cream, chocolate mousse with a scoop of chocolate Dulce de Leche, and a chocolate brownie.

Dulce de Leche is a crepe filled with a sweetened milk reduction and usually garnished with some sprinkle. In this case the sprinkle was almond praline. I liked it the mousse but it was fashioned into a block with a chocolate biscuit stuck into it.

After dinner Marcello and Andrea drove us back to their house wher we said goodnight. It was 11:15.

Their hospitality could not have been more gracious.

We drove home through a labyrinth of construction of roadways but made it without difficulty and fell into bed.

Bon Appetit