Ruca Malen

Cap off a long morning of tastings in Luján with a wine-pairing lunch at Ruca Malen, which provides an excellent introduction to the siesta-inducing tradition (reserve well in advance to guarantee a table). Despite its size, the winery's tiny dining room is luminous and serene, with floor-to-ceiling windows on all four sides to make the most of lovely mountain and vineyard views. The five-course menu, while local through and through, is playful rather than pious. A recent visit began with a salad of quinoa, green olives, tart apples and Chardonnay leaves (a hand-illustrated map of Argentina, complete with guanaco-dotted mountains and hovering eastern rainclouds, gradually materialized underneath as the salad's components disappeared) and ended with deconstructed alfajores (the ubiquitous soft-and-crumbly cornstarch sugar cookies filled with dulce de leche and beloved by generations of Argentine schoolchildren).