We woke at Finca Azul to find the Andes to the west white from an overnight snowfall. This is the same perspective from the photo from the night before, but with morning sunlight and a new snowfall.

After breakfast, Patricia, our tour guide for Uco Valley, picked us up for the tour. Despite the cold weather and snowfall on the Andes the previous night, the temperature rose and we didn’t need jackets.

Corazón del Sol

Our first stop was Corazón del Sol. From our list of bodegas that I wanted to visit, this had been the last on the list. However, the experience was such a good one for both of us that that visit alone made the tour worth it.

An interesting note about the owner – He is a cardiologist from New York, hence the “Corazón” (“heart” in Spanish) in the name. He also owns vineyards in Oregon and California.

The experience involved a tour of the winery, a barrel tasting of Malbec and Cab/Cab Franc blends, and finally a tasting of four bottled wines.

We loved everything, which is uncommon in our travels. On this day last year, we were in Sonoma and had the same experience at Sojourn, trying Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

This experience was unique to our trip so far because they concentrate on Rhône varietals: Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Roussane, Marsanne, and Viognier. Also some Malbec and Semmilon.

Contrary to our decision not to make any decisions about making commitments with the bodegas in Argentina, we joined the Corazón del Sol wine club, which obligated us to two cases a year, one shipped in April and one in October.

Because the seasons are opposite, April and October are the only months of the year when the weather in both Argentina and the US is cool enough to ship wine safely. At the moment, Argentina is experiencing their springtime, moving into their summer, while it is autumn in the US, moving into winter. We had to make the same arrangement in New Zealand for shipping because the issue with weather is the same.

Solo Contigo

Our next stop was only five minutes away. Because we had spent so much time at Corazón del Sol and we had a lunch appointment approaching, we only had time to have a glass of Chardonnay, which was fine but not better than what we have in our collection.

This gave me an opportunity to do some planning. One of my Spanish teachers, Eleonora, lives in Mendoza. We had spoken about getting together for lunch at some point while we were visiting. The following day, we would be leaving Uco Valley behind, headed toward Barreal, in San Juan Province. During the trip, we would have enough time to stop in Mendoza on the way and meet with Eleonora for lunch. After proposing a few places, none of which were in a convenient proximity for Eleonora, we agreed on a steakhouse in central Mendoza. More on this tomorrow.

Giménez Riili

We were treated to a four-course lunch, which included wine pairings with each course. This restaurant focused on wood-fired grilled meats, which under most circumstances is amazing, except for the patio seating downwind from the smoker. Each course was served with a wine pairing, which would have been ideal if not for everything smelling like smoke.

During lunch, we struck up a conversation with two couples at the tables next to us. One from south of London in the UK and the other a Latina traveler with her boyfriend. We all were able to switch back and forth between Spanish and English, which would have made for an interesting transcript.

This is the view from the patio of the restaurant for our two hour lunch (as lunches tend to last in Argentina). They received an unexpected late snow this spring, so the locals are all going on about how beautiful the mountains are right now.

We might have visited more bodegas for the tour but we spent so much time at lunch that there was no time for anything else. Patricia did take us to the Finca Azul bodega, up the road from our hotel, but it was so crowded with millennials that I turned us back around and we just returned to the hotel to decompress before supper.

Supper at Finca Azul was Italian night, featuring multiple courses of pastas, sausage, salsas, and all the Finca Azul wine that we could drink to accompany.  

Next up - Day 5: Travel to Barreal

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