We arrived in Punta del Este on a beautiful morning, except, of course, that it meant the much-needed rain wasn't coming today. We were headed out to a winery in the hilly eastern coastal area. Punta del Este is a very popular tourist destination for Argentinians as most of Uruguay's coastline is covered with beach area, while the Argentinian side of Rio de la Plata has virtually no beaches.
The winery we visited for our Parilla lunch was Cerro del Toro, which means Hill of the Bull, a very new winery up in the hills. This winery was established in 2016 and they had plans to build the production facility at the vineyard, but Covid happened and they had to reschedule the build. They now harvest the grapes by hand at night, which is usual practice in Uruguay, and process them in a rented facility a few kilometers away until they have their own. They have built a small tasting room/restaurant up in the hills among the vines, and this is where we had our lunch.
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| Driving in to the winery. The tasting room is up on the lower hill to the left. The higher one is Cerro del Toro. There was a fire up there recently, which fortunately didn't reach the vineyard. |
Even though this winery is very new, it has already made a name for itself with its Albarino wine, and has started exporting to the US and Europe. With our traditional parilla, or grilled lunch, we were trying some of the wines produced here.
While the winery manager explained what they are doing and the wines they produce, we could smell the aromas of the food grilling behind the restaurant, and it certainly did smell amazing!
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| The grillmaster tending the parilla |
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| A selection of meats on the grill |
We knew we would be having lunch, and that Uruguay, like Argentina and Brazil, is a beef-eating culture, but we weren't quite prepared for how much we would be served. We ended up at a table by ourselves rather than six or eight people, so we were served more than the two of us could eat, but we put a nice dent in it anyway.
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| Two types of chorizo sausage |
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| Blood pudding that was actually quite tasty |
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| and another version of blood pudding, that tasted of caramelized onions, roasted carrots and even raisins. It reminded us of mincemeat |
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| The star of the show of any parilla is the asado, or cross-cut short rib. The steaks and tenderloin are exported, and the rest of the steer is consumed locally, mainly in parillas |
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| You've never had a rump roast that looks or tastes like this one! Tender and delicious. |
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| And for dessert we were served Dulce de Leche crepes with vanilla ice cream  The wines we tasted here. Some were the same as we had yesterday, but they tasted completely different because of the growing region. |
Views from the estate and the drive back down from the tasting room:
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| Some of the horses on the estate. |
The 45-minute drive back to Punta del Este was very quiet after that big meal, but we did manage to see some of the beautiful houses the city is known for. Many wealthy people from the world over have homes in the area, from movie and music stars to politicians and famous businesspeople. It is known, along with the beaches, for beautiful summer weather and the safety of the community.
And here is one of the iconic sculptures of Punta del Este: The Hand. It was sculpted at Brava Beach in 1982 by Chilean artist Mario Irarrazabal as part of a Meeting of Modern Sculpture in the Open Air. It is probably one of the most photographed spots in the whole city. This one is a right hand, and Irarrazabal also sculpted a left hand at exactly the same latitude near Antofagasta, Chile.
We had a very light dinner at Atlantide after that wonderful introduction to traditional barbecue.
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