Our third stop was The Vines of Mendoza, just down the road. We spent a quiet afternoon sunbathing and reading before walking through the vineyard to another winery, Giminez Riili, for dinner - a pretty and enjoyable way of working up an appetite!
The following morning was harvest time for us. The harvest at Alpasión was very nearly finished but we were able to “assist” a little with the Petit Verdot and filled 3 boxes under the guidance of Guillermo!
After harvesting, we went into the barrel room to taste some wines with a view to blending some for an “Owners’ Selection”. Following this, we headed down to Karim’s winery to follow him and Guillermo in their normal work of tank tasting. This is done regularly to monitor the progression of the wine as it ferments and develops. It was interesting to do as we started with wines that had been in the tanks the longest and finished with those that were grapes that had recently been put into tanks. These latter tasted very sweet and more like grape juice than wine.
That evening we dined at Siete Fuegos which is in The Vines of Mendoza and is a communal dinner around a large table where food is brought out that has been cooked on 7 different types of fire. We began with empanadas and followed with salt encrusted salmon, sausages, pork, chicken, beef tenderloin, vegetables and finally pineapple (also cooked on the fire). It was all delicious.
The next day was a work day for Alistair as he visited the admin offices of Alpasión and chatted with the team there. Meanwhile, Matthew and I joined the chef at the hotel, Matteo, to learn how to make empanadas. It turns out that it is relatively simple so we will be attempting to recreate the magic at home for a future party!! Obviously it was necessary to test the ones we had made and we even got to keep some for Alistair to try later.
That afternoon, Alistair returned having collected our friend, Stéphane Ledentu, from the airport. He had come to join us before we all headed out the next day to Brazil. We took him for dinner at Alpasión of course so we had one more chance to enjoy Hector’s excellent food.