BBQ Pizza is a delicacy in some small towns in the US, but it takes on a whole different meaning when you are actually cooking the pizaa on a BBQ (or parilla if in Argentina) instead of adding some BBQ sauce to a chicken pizza. I find it hard to imagine anything much worse than chicken and BBQ sauce on a pizza – not so with pizza made on a parilla. David, one of the partners at Vines, was the chef — In addition to the pizza David made some of his famous hamburgers – just in case the pizza didn’t work out.
While the first couple came out a bit on the well done side (I have included a photo to the right to give you a sense of what it looked like). Once David got the technique down the pizzas were quite good. OK, so that is not a picture of the pizza – it is the cover of an AC/DC album – but you get the point. Not that I am complaining about food – I would rather someone cooks and I can be in charge of eating.
The night also logged the end of a long day for some of the staff who were giving a tour to a pair of architects from the US who are helping the team design the Vines Resort. John & Hadrian, the architects, had spent the day touring the countryside to get a feel for the Mendoza lifestyle – so they were a little bit tired from the long day (and not being used to Argentine scheduling, they were probably ready for bed when we started cooking at 10:00 PM).
That is it for today – soon an update on what the architects learned about Argentina.
The Vines staff officially launched the development of private vineyards in partnership with owners from across the United States with a party in the Vines Tasting Room last night. We also celebrated the redesign of the Vines Tasting Rooms to include a new Valle de Uco Valle Room featuring the best wines from the Valle de Uco.
Carmelo Patti is something of a legend here in Mendoza and has built his reputation on being the master of fine wines in the area. The Gran Assemblage is his masterpiece. It is a blend of his other wines and is as smooth as any wine you will ever have – the taste of fruit jumps out at you and the finish is amazing. Carmelo ages his wine for a year in the tank and another year (at a minimum) in the barrel before it goes to bottle – to say he is a perfectionist is to underestimate his work.