Jussi Westergren’s Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch

February 11, 2011 – Kaiken and Cavas Wine Lodge

We were not finished tasting wine for the day, but lunch beckoned.

We’d arranged for Sebastian, a chef who is becoming a master of Argentine barbeque, to prepare a private lunch for us at Kaiken, another winery that was on our list of the day.

Sebastian has previously worked for the Argentine celebrity chef Francis Mallman, whose restaurants are our favourite in both Mendoza and Buenos Aires. Sebastian did not mind waiting—we’d kept up with him by cell phone through the afternoon—but we got the feeling that he was relieved that his meat would not dry out any more. We were certainly happy to sit down and enjoy the excellent assortment of barbecued meats and grilled vegetables.

We were greeted at Kaiken by the beautiful Tiffany, who is from Montreal. Yet another Mendoza wine family with ties around the world.

After lunch we piled back into Jorges’ vehicle and carried on to Cavas Wine Lodge, where Jussi and Ilkka had reservations to spend the night. We’d noticed by this time that Jorge knew every shortcut in the area. He kept confidently off onto dirt roads that would surprisingly lead us to our destination in a fraction of the time that it would take on the highway. He would smile occasionally and tell us what certain properties were like more than 40 years ago in his youth.

Cavas Wine Lodge turned out to be a superb property for Jussi and Ilkka to spend their last night in Argentina. Thankfully Ilkka informed us soon after we arrived there, “Enough, no more eating and no more drinking. I am tired.” Jussi had a great run on the property on the next morning and the Finnish boys were off to Canada to be with their family.