April 23, 2025 Wine Tasting at Cuvelier Winery, Lunch - La Huella, Wine tasting at Flor y Fuego. Dinner - Boeuf Bourguignon with fresh pasta
Another day dominated by the ever present Andes and great wine.
I ate my now regular breakfast at La Morada of yogurt and granola, Gravad red trout from Patagonia with cream cheese on a slice of toasted bread, fruit, a little fresh orange juice, and Earl Grey tea.
Then we all drove to the area de Los Siete, which is a vast area divided into seven different wineries owned by seven different French wineries. The premium wine is Clos de Los Siete.
The four wineries that participate in the Clos de los Siete project are: Bodega Diamomde, Bodega Monteviejo, Cuvelier Los Andes, and Bodega Rolland. These wineries are located within a 2,100-acre vineyard in the Uco Valley.
We went to Cuvelier for a tasting of their premium wines. What prompted us to taste their wines included a glass of rose at La Morada poured gratuitously at lunch two days ago. It tasted like rose from Provence. We were not disappointed by the three additional wines we tasted today and we bought bottles of the two wines we liked the best, a Gran Vin de Los Andes that was a blend of the five blending grapes of Bordeaux and a Gran Malbec that was 100% Malbec.
We then visited Diamonde to see its architecture and Monteviejo where we were served a glass of sparkling Malbec made with the champanoise method that was quite nice to drink as we sat on its ultra modern terrace with it incredible view of the Andes.
Billy and Elaine had made lunch reservations at La Huella winery so we drove there at 1:00. Suzette and I were not hungry so she ordered a lovely homemade burrata salad and I ordered an appetizer of sweetbreads with mashed potatoes. Billy ordered sweetbreads and pork ribs and Elaine ordered pork ribs also.
Then we were served a glass of rose with a pre-appetizer of a stack of guacamole topped with cooked shredded red trout topped with a cap of cream cheese, a lovely and delicious appetizer served with an assortment of breads including a large freshly baked dinner roll that I spread the trout appetizer on. I was satiated after that but enjoyed the sweetbreads with their thick creamy mashed potatoes that were possibly mixed with squash.
We have found creative food among the usual grilled asado choices and today’s appetizer and mashed potatoes mixed with squash was one of them. Elaine and Billy drank Malbec with their two grilled pork ribs. Elaine shared her ribs and I must admit that it tasted remarkably similar to the pork shoulder we ate yesterday at Azul winery.
Billy began talking to an American couple eating lunch at the next table named David and Margie who invited us to their small winery for a tasting at 6:00.
At 3:00 we drove home and rested until 5:15 and then drove to David and Margie’s place which turned out to be three houses, two wine production facilities, and four or five acres of wine vines, of petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec., and Chardonnay.
They were lovely ex-pats that divided their time between a house with one acre of Pinot Noir in Sonoma and this winery in Uco. They had been lucky to find a father/son team with the father who did construction and managed the winery with his son, Lucas, who was the wine maker, who has won several local awards for their wines.
They put out plain walnuts and sugared walnuts grown on their property, olives, and finally Swiss Chocolate with raspberries to taste with their award winning Gran Petit Verdot.
They gave us a tour of their winery and David talked about how they scrounged quality materials that they used to build and remodel the buildings.
When Billy pressed him about his vocation, David said, “I have been a vagabond and in construction and some life guarding.”
Margie seemed very grounded with kids in Panama City. Panama and involved in the winery effort. They hand pick their grapes with a crew from Mendoza they feed and house for two or three days.
I was impressed with their devotion to making great wine using only French barrils. We really liked the gran Petit Verdot and bought a bottle of it and left a bit after 8:00.
When we arrived home Suzette boiled the remaining fresh pasta and heated the Boeuf Bourguignon with chorizo we made yesterday morning and microwaved the leftover onions and squash from our asado meal in Lujan.
We each had a bowl of pasta and Boeuf Bourguignon. I drank a glass of Homigo Negro (black ant) de Los Andes Malbec we had bought at Atomos supermarket on the way into the Uco from Mendoza. Soon Billy joined us and ate a bowl also with some Malbec.
It started raining as we ate dinner and continued during the night. This is the first serious rain we have experienced and it reminded me of our final days in late September in Spain last year when the weather shifted from summer heat to fall cloudiness and precipitation.
After another day of tasting great wine seeing great scenery, we went to bed at 10:00 after packing to make an early return to Mendoza tomorrow to fly to BA.
Cooking the dishes we love, as in this meal, with the quality ingredients we find, such as our dinner combining asado beef and pure pork chorizo instead of bacon, is the ideal diet for us in my opinion.
Bon Appetit
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