The fifth and last day in my series on Hotel Chatter takes us to Mendoza, in the heart of Argentina's wine country. For culture and nightlife, Buenos Aires takes the blue ribbon in Argentina, but for sybaritic pleasures, oenophilic oddities, outdoor adventures and breathtaking views (of the Andes), Mendoza was my favorite destination on last year's trip.
Coincidentally, I went to Silverlake Wine last night for one of their tri-weekly tastings, and they were serving up a trio of Malbecs from the region. After sampling all three, we decided to buy a fourth that they happened to have there that they were not pouring, and when we opened it to try, we found that we liked it better than any of the others. Typical.
What was fascinating about the fourth bottle, which is by a winery called Durigutti, is that they claim to ferment it under completely natural conditions, meaning no temperature controls in the fermentation tanks, and no non-native yeast additions. For all that, the wine was complex if un-subtle, and not quite as fruit-forward as some of the other ones we tried last night. All in all, a lovely little wine, but nothing to write home about...just a blog.
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