Most people who like wine, like food. It's an irresistible combination and Mendoza's vineyards offer some great boozy lunches fit for even the greediest visitor. Amanda Barnes goes through some of her favourite vineyards with food and wine combos fit for a king.
Zuccardi
With a cosy restaurant, olive oil factory and some of the region's best cooking classes, Zuccardi is a real highlight on any big eater's list. The vineyard organises full days where you can indulge in food and wine; starting with a calorific breakfast on arrival, cooking class, a huge lunch, olive oil factory visit, right down to petit fours at afternoon tea.
The tasty cooking class gives you practise and advice on how to make fantastic empanadas, fresh bread and pastries while working in the kitchen with Zuccardi's chefs. It is a fast but laid-back, hands-on class where you try lots of treats and most importantly you'll always have a glass of wine in your hand!
Recipe: Zuccardi's meat empanadas
This makes about 10 empanadas.
Pastry
600gr Flour
100g Butter
40gr Fat (animal)/ lard
240 mls water
16gr salt
Corn Starch
To make the pastry, put the dry ingredients into a bowl. Mix the butter and fat into the flour. Add the water and mix just until it comes together and can be formed easily into a ball. Stretch the pastry and fold the pastry into a neat pile of layers putting a sprinkle of corn starch between the layers. Refrigerate for at least half an hour. Then, cut the pastry into rounds (about the wide of a full toilet paper roll).
Meat Filling
500gr beef (either minced or cut into small cubes)
250 gr sliced onion
30gr fat (animal)/lard
2 hardboiled eggs (or more or less depending on your preference)
Season with salt, pepper, paprika, oregano and any fresh herbs according to taste.
Saute onion in hot oil until cooked translucent (about 5 minutes), lower the heat and add meat, when cooked add the hardboiled eggs and the spices and seasoning.
Take a golf ball sized portion of the filling and put it into the middle of the pastry round. Fold it over all the way so that the edges touch, forming a semi circle, and pinch the edges together.
To make the empanadas golden brown, paint them with an egg yolk, and the put them in a clay oven for approximately 10 minutes (if you don't have a clay oven, a conventional one will do, just cook until golden at a medium temperature).
Wine pairing: Zuccardi Serie A Malbec 2008
After a morning in the kitchen, cooking and eating traditional Argentine recipes, it is a good idea to walk some of it off before lunch. A trip to the Olive Shed gives you a chance to digest. Olive oil production is becoming increasingly popular in Mendoza but no one yet does it quite as successfully as Zuccardi. The bodega has been churning out great, aromatic olive oil for years and a visit lets you see how simple production is for this pure product.
If the recipe above didn't leave you salivating, imagine Zuccardi's next activity: an all-you-can-eat asado, a prime challenge by any food lover's standards! With barbecued kid, chicken, steak and sausages it's sure to satisfy any carnivore's craving, but for those who like the green stuff there are endless salads and grilled vegetables to accompany. The bottomless booze is also sure to bring some colour to everyone's cheeks.
With plenty of food and wine to keep you busy at Zuccardi (with education thrown in for those who need an excuse), the only option is to undo your top button and indulge!
Familia Zuccardi, www.familiazuccardi.com
O. Fournier
Shaped like a spaceship, set in amongst the stunning Andes landscape and offering an elaborate six course menu, O. Fournier is a far cry from your usual Malbec and empanada style winery. The Spanish chef Nadia Heron takes culinary 
influences from all over the world but the most notable of O. Fournier's particularities is that vegetables dishes appear to have majority rule of the menu - something of a rarity in Argentina, land of ham, steak and chicken.
"I like to use the best resources around me," says Nadia, "and Mendoza produces great vegetables which I like to work with, I do, of course, always include a meat dish too!" she smiles, making a compromise with the Argentine carnivores.
Rounds of classic, as well as more unusual, gastronomy delights grace the table in a sit down lunch or dinner here, from classic rich and creamy vichissoise, buttery and earthy mushroom risotto encased in a focaccia crisp and perfectly cooked steak to more adventurous dishes like lemon potato with pickled vegetables, torrontes sorbet and fancy cheese puffs. All this matched with magnificent mountain views, and exceptional wines. It's a epicurean delight of unparalleled proportions.
O Fournier, www.ofournier.com
Terruño, Tapiz
Club Tapiz set out in the vineyards in Maipu is a real oasis of luxury and good food. The beautiful colonial style house is home to Terruño restaurant where hungry visitors enjoy a four course meal matched with Tapiz´s wines and a beautiful view over the fields.
The innovative menu combines some of the regions more diverse ingredients cooked in a fusion style – for example the local trout is prepared in a Peruvian ceviche style. An opening tasting plate of warm homemade breads and different olive oils, made by Tapiz in the nearby olive press, is a welcome chance to explore different intensities of olive oil and get your appetite up for a delightful meal in pretty surroundings.
Club Tapiz, www.club-tapiz.com.ar or contact Trout and Wine for all inclusive luxury wine tours including lunch at Terruño www.troutandwine.com.ar
