Argentina, Our Winter Journey, January 2012 (Part III, Mendoza)

It’s about a two-hour flight from Buenos Aires to Mendoza. We didn’t actually stay in Mendoza proper but in the upscale suburb of Chacras de Coria at Casa Glebinias www.casaglebinias.com, a small “rural” hotel owned and run by an absolutely charming couple Albert and Maria Gracias Aristarains. They arranged for our convivial, globetrotting and trilingual guide David to meet us at the airport and drive us around for the next three days. They were also very helpful in making reservations at vineyards and restaurants.

Casa Glebinias actually consists of a series of small lodges that can each accommodate up to four people. Our lodge for the four of us, two couples, was two-stories with a living room/kitchen, two bedrooms, two baths and a private terrace. The setting is a beautiful 1-1/2 acre garden that the Aristarains have spent 30 years planting plus a swimming pool.

We spent the afternoon of our arrival exploring the village of Chacras de Coria, about a half-hour walk from Casa Glebinias, and just hanging out in the garden and by the pool. That night we had dinner reservations in Mendoza at Francis Mallmann’s highly touted restaurant 1884.

As a young chef Mallmann became famous in Argentina for his French haute cuisine, but he apparently had a transformative experience in Europe and returned to his Patagonian gaucho roots of grilling over a wood fire with Argentinean ingredients. 1884 is located in the Escorihuela Bodega that opened in 1884. It is a truly beautiful restaurant. We began with cocktails in the garden located next to the outdoor kitchen where the chefs and sous-chefs were cooking over several wood fires. It was fascinating and the cocktails were good. Argentina is not a cocktail drinking country, so this was a real treat. The dining room runs alongside the garden and we were still able to watch the kitchen at our table. I strongly recommend listening to the suggestions from the wine steward. We didn’t for our first bottle and regretted it, but we made a course correction with bottle number two.  I started with the empanadas and was a little disappointed. They were nothing special, but the grilled goat was to die for. I went back to our hotel with a doggie bag and finished it up the next morning. I have to say that the service at 1884 was a little disappointing, not slow, but perfunctory, not warm, unlike our hosts at Casa Glebinias.

On our second day we toured three bodegas. From this limited sampling it would seem that each winery has its own approach to promoting its wines. The first one, Viña Cobos www.vinacobos.com, had very enthusiastic recent graduates from the local school of viticulture explaining to us the technical aspects of wine-making, the different grapes and the locations where they are grown, followed by a tasting of mostly reds.

At our second bodega, Belasco de Baquedano Winery www.belascodebaquedano.com, we were introduced to the Hall of Aromas, a large room with 46 aromatic essences on pedestals that cover the primary, secondary and tertiary tastes and, by extension, aromas in wines. It was educational and I liked the interactivity. We also ate lunch in the restaurant that included wine pairings with exceptional food. Our table was awash with wine glasses of various shapes. The wines were all Malbecs of different manifestations depending on where they were grown. The Andes are a looming presence throughout the entire area. Vineyards are being planted at higher and higher altitudes, partly because of global warming, with the result that a single grape like Malbec can take on an almost infinite variety of subtle taste differences.

Our third and last stop was at Bodega Catena Zapata www.catenawines.com. Here the emphasis was on wine-tasting techniques, the proper way to hold the glass by the stem so as not to tamper with the temperature of the wine, the swirl, the aroma, the color and finally the taste. It was interesting but a little precious. Needless-to-say, the Malbecs are the dominant red grape and are certainly yummy, but the white wines of Argentina are also great. I’m not a big fan of oaky wines and have found most US Chardonnays to be oaky, not so Argentinean Chardonnays. My favorites are the Torrontes whites from Salta, intriguing and complex, and the Sauvignon Blancs.

On day three we opted to have our guide David take us into the foothills of the Andes via RN-7, the highway that links Mendoza with Santiago, Chile. On the drive we kept noticing what we thought were some kind of recycling dumps for plastic bottles except the bottles all had water in them. It turns out that the recycling dumps are, in fact, roadside shrines to Difunta Correa, a folk heroine named Deolinda Correa. According to the legend, during the civil wars in the 1840’s her husband was forcibly drafted into the rebel army. When she learned he had become sick and subsequently abandoned by his comrades, she took off through the desert with their baby to find him. She ran out of water and died with the baby at her breast.

A few days later her body was found by some gauchos driving their cattle to market, but her baby was still alive sucking milk from her breast. They buried her and rescued the baby. Her legend and her shrines were promulgated first by gauchos and later by truck drivers as they drove first their cattle and then their trucks through the Andes.

The drive was quite spectacular; but the higher we got the less of the mountains we could see because of the clouds, so we decided to stop at the village of Uspallata and head back to Mendoza. Uspallata is a major stopping off point for trucks, buses and anyone else heading into Chile. According to David, winter driving on RN-7 can be quite treacherous, especially in a semi. Sometimes the road is closed for days. Along the route you can still see the tracks of a train that once ran through the mountains but that was apparently defunded decades ago by an Argentinean president who had a vested interest in trucking. Now there is a movement on the part of the current government to build a tunnel through the Andes just for trucks and so it goes.

On our way back to Mendoza we stopped at another shrine to another colorful folk legend – Gauchito Gil (pronounced “heel”).  He was born Antonio Mamerto Gil Núñez around 1840 in Corrientes which became hotbed of political intrigue and conflict during the Paraguayan War in the 1860’s. Apparently, the rich widow of a powerful rancher was discovered by her brothers to be having a hot affair with the gaucho Antonio Gil. This, of course, was a no-no, so they conspired with the local police commissioner to frame him for a robbery.  Gil took off and joined the army fighting against the Paraguayans.

He later returned home a hero, but by that time civil war had broken out in Argentina. He was forced into another army. Sick of war, he and a few companions deserted and with help from the local peasants lived off the land rustling cattle. But like Robin Hood, he was an honorable thief, stealing from the rich, giving to the poor, and generally defending the powerless against greedy and corrupt government officials. Eventually, he was captured.

While he was being taken in for trial, the police captain decided to take the law into his own hands and murder Gil and cover up his dastardly deed by pretending Gil had tried to escape. The captain strung Gil up by his ankles and prepared to slit his throat. Just before he died Gil told the captain that his son was gravely ill and that the boy would only recover if the captain prayed to Gil for a cure. Thinking this was baloney, the captain slit Gil’s throat. When he arrived home, he, indeed, found his son seriously ill. Of course, he invoked the name of Gauchito Gil in his prayers and the boy was cured.

Chastened, the captain returned to the site where he had murdered and buried Gil and planted a wooden cross. The story spread and the first Gauchito Gil shrine was established. Images of the long-haired, mustached gaucho with his blood red poncho and bandanna in front of a wooden cross appear all over Argentina, particularly in the Northern provinces like Mendoza. Even graffiti artists in Buenos Aires paint his image on the city’s walls.

We concluded our stay in Mendoza with probably the best dining experience we had in Argentina – at Nadia’s. The restaurant is located in Chacras de Coria where we were staying, but it’s about a 45 minute walk from Casa Glebinias, so you might want to opt for a cab. We decided on the tasting menu with wine from the bodega of Nadia’s owners. You can also bring your own wine and there is a corkage fee.  The menu is changed weekly on Thursdays. We thought every dish was quite innovative and great, including the eggplant, which I normally dislike. The portions were just large enough and the wine pourings were very generous and particularly focused on dry, crisp whites. The restaurant is located in a refurbished old house with a stylish minimalist patio outside where we ate. There is really good artwork on the walls of the interior dining room.

The next morning David drove us to the airport for our LAN flight back to Buenos Aires and then home. The only down side to our three great days in Mendoza was the three-hour delay on the tarmac and a flight attendant who didn’t see fit to tell us what was going on. A small price to pay for three wonderful weeks. We want to go back to Argentina, the next time to Salta where the best Torrontes wine comes from and to spectacular Iguazu Falls.

Photography courtesy of Jan and Richard Metcalf