Asado

ASADO
An Argentine Sunday at Glen Ewin
With Gastón Bravo Wines

Every spring, the Hills fills with wine dinners. A chef, a winemaker, a menu, a price.

This is not one of them.

In Argentina, there is a word for what Sunday is for. An asado is three things. A fire. A cook who has done this since he was a boy. And an afternoon that moves at the pace of the coals, not the clock. Families do it every week, and nobody calls it an event.

On Sunday 27 September, it happens here.

Gastón learned to make wine at eight, helping his grandfather with the harvest in Argentina. This September his father, a chef, flies out for six weeks. On one of those Sundays, he cooks.

The fire is lit at the Gatehouse, over the lake. The empanadas come off it first. Then the choripán, the vacío, the picanha and the ribs, each in its own time, served to share down one long table. Six of Gastón's wines beside them, poured by the man who made them. Alfajores and fig liqueur to finish, and nobody watching the clock.

And one more thing. A tango singer opens the afternoon, and the dancers return between the courses.

At four, the fire goes out. Then he flies home.

The afternoon
1:00pm · Arrival, and a glass of Rosé Malbec before anyone finds a seat
1:10pm · The tango singer, while the fire settles
1:30pm · Empanadas, Mendoza style, straight off the coals, with the 2023 Grenache
1:50pm · Choripán, with the 2023 Grenache Oaky. The first tango
2:20pm · Vacío, flank over the coals with adobo argentino, with the 2024 Monino Malbec
2:45pm · The parrilla proper. Picanha over open coals, with the 2024 Gratitude Shiraz. The dancers return
3:15pm · Beef ribs, slow over the coals, with the 2024 Two Homes Blend
3:40pm · Alfajores with Pot & Still fig liqueur, and a last tango
4:00pm · The fire goes out. Gastón's wines to take home


Gastón makes wine in the Barossa under his own label, Gastón Bravo, half a world from the vineyard where he learned. He has no cellar door of his own. For one afternoon, ours is his. Glen Ewin Estate was founded in 1843 as a vineyard, pulled the vines out to plant the orchards, and made the jam South Australia grew up on. It has stood in the same valley ever since, twenty-five minutes from the city and nothing like it.

$170.00 a seat, plus booking fee
Fifty seats at one long table, one sitting
Bookings essential
Dietary requirements to be specified when completing ticket order in the note section.