Mendoza changes color with the tomato season, and the calendar marks an event that has become a tradition: grandmothers, children, and grandchildren gather at a home to make tomato sauce and preserve fresh tomatoes for the winter. The greengrocers are dressed in red from February to April to begin this ritual, which is a production chain: washing, peeling, cooking, crushing, and bottling.
This moment of gathering becomes a true transmission of recipes and secrets between generations, and it is such a quintessential act of Mendoza that when chef Juan Ventureyra arrived in the province from his native Buenos Aires, he was surprised and realized that Mendoza is as much a "tomato region" as it is a wine region.
"Today we have 500 square meters of garden at the winery and another garden in the Maipú department; Nolberto has my biodynamic seeds, he does all the agroecological work in the land, all manually and without pesticides, because in my menu, I offer the real flavor of vegetables."
In 2024, Juan harvested 84 varieties of tomatoes, and this year he doubled the bet, reaching 95. "One always tries to plant more varieties to make certain dishes, but it almost never goes well because nature is capricious; one wants to anticipate the planning of a menu because they get to know the types of tomatoes, but this year, for example, it didn't work out; there was little production due to the frosts and rains. Some years, we produce 3000 kilos of tomatoes, and others only 1000," Ventureyra details.
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