Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
South America
348
Ruca Malen
A Room with a View
Mendoza, Argentina
When you sit on the balcony of Ruca
Malen winery, you get an idea of just how
vast Mendoza province is. A huge plain of
scrubland, punctuated by the odd boxy
modernist winery, rolls out before you. It
would all be rather flat and boring if not for
the sweeping wall of ice and rock on the
horizon, otherwise known as the Andes.
The longest mountain range in the world,
the Andes feed this desert plain with
melted snow, irrigating everything, includ-
ing the beautiful garden city of Mendoza
30 minutes to the north.
Mendoza province is one of the biggest
wine-producing regions in the world, with
more than 1,000 wineries. Yet only 6% of
the province is actually cultivated and
lived upon—the rest is barren mountains
or desolate desert, with just the occa-
sional nodding-donkey oil well working
silently. Mendoza doesn't just have red
gold, it has black gold too.
Ruca Malen is alive with noise. Below
the long, beautiful hardwood balcony is a
small restaurant that is always busy, espe-
cially in summer. The building itself is
warm and modern with red brick walls and
gray-framed windows; the winemaking
facilities are clean and functional, their
only unusual feature a huge experimental
tank that looks like a giant coffee plunger.
Owner Jean Pierre Thibauld is a Franco
Argentine who grew up surrounded by
wine. His father stored many valuable
bottles in the cellar of their country house
on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. One day,
the butler announced that the cellar was
flooded and the bottles had lost their
labels. For the next 20 years, the family
drank the finest wine without knowing
exactly what was what.
Thibauld grew up to be the chairman of
the Argentine branch of Chandon, the
famous French winery, which has been
operating here since the early 1960s. (As
the story goes, when French Chandon's
president Robert Jean de Vogue first vis-
ited Argentina in 1955, he noted the locals
imbibing prodigious amounts of wine
topped off with ice cubes and soda water,
and observed, “This country is ready for
champagne!”)
Chandon Argentina became the French
château's most profitable arm, and it was
Thibauld who helped steer it through the
boom time of the Menem presidency, an
era nicknamed the “pizza and champagne
years.”
When Thibauld finally retired from
Chandon in 1998, he decided to start his
own winery. He chose the name Ruca
Malen for his new venture, a term from
local Mapuche legend meaning “the girl´s
house.” Along with informative and enter-
taining guided tours, the bodega offers
the best winery lunch in Mendoza—a five-
course spectacular where each dish is
paired with a particular wine. Guests get
to try the winery's full range, while soaking
up the amazing view.
Ruca Malen,
Ruta Nacional 7, Mendoza
(
&
54/11/4807-1671;
www.bodegaruca
malen.com).
(
Mendoza City (30km/18 miles).
L
$$$
Finca Adalgisa,
Pueyrredon
2222, Chacras de Coria (
&
54/261/496-
0713;
www.fincaadalgisa.com.ar). $$
Hotel Argentino,
Espejo 455, Mendoza
City (
&
54/261/405-6300;
www.hotel-
argentino.com).
