Our April wine adventure started on Saturday, April 12 when Tara and I met Sarah in the Mendoza omnibus terminal. Sarah had come up from Neuquén and Tara and I had arrived from Buenos Aires. We checked into our guesthouse on the western side of town and decided to find some lunch. Looking back I don’t know if we were blessed with extremely good travel karma or if Sarah has an excellent memory for restaurants recommended by the guidebooks, no matter, we struck gold on our first venture onto the eating scene of Mendoza.
Azafrán is heaven. No, it is more than heaven. It is like the true light of bliss that the enlightened experience at death and the 1000 lotus flowered paradise where nectar rains from the sky, where no one is unhappy and where everyone smiles. Unfortunately, bills still arrive in heaven and paradise.
This meal was one of the most pleasurable eating experiences in South America mainly because as the customer, if you want wine with your meal, you have to get up from your table and walk into their vinoteca (wine shop) where you literally pick out your bottle of wine. And so Sarah, Tara and I got up and walked into the beautifully designed wine cellar/vinoteca where we spoke with the sommelier and decided on a 2003 Tempranillo from the Familia Zuccardi bodega.
We later learned that the vinoteca and restaurant were technically two different businesses and by having them be separate businesses the customers could buy a bottle of wine without the restaurant mark up. We opened our bottle of Zuccardi Q Tempranillo, and it was light and excellent. We ordered a meat and cheese platter and 3 salads, each better than the next, and finished with some excellent deserts. The entire meal was less than 100 US, took 3 hours and set the bar for the rest of our time in this city of tree lined avenues, open acequias and insane Argentine drivers.
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