We’re off to Argentina in February, splitting time between BA and Mendoza.
We’ve 4 nights in Mendoza, staying at Casa Lila on Nicolas Avellaneda in the town proper.
I’ve never toured wine country in Argentina before and - shamefully - have little to no knowledge of excellent boutique wineries or winemakers in the Mendoza area. While my research is ongoing, I’d love to have thoughts and recommendations about producers and winemakers in the area, tours that stood out in your mind(s) and opportunities not to missed while we’re there.
Ditto that for BA restos and wine bars if you have them. Many thanks in advance.
Hi Rebecca, and welcome to WB! Don’t apologize for lack of knowledge–I’ve never been to Argentina, much less Mendoza!
One of my favorite wines is Structura Ultra made by Bodegas Navarro Correas. The '06 is spectacular, and (with some air) the '08 almost as good (they only make it in certain years, when the grapes merit). I assume they have a tasting room, but don’t know–but you should be able to find that out easily. Have fun down there.
In Mendoza, go to Mendel for a tasting. You have to call them in advance for an appointment. They’re a small, boutique winery.
The popular Achaval Ferrer was disappointing.
Ahhh - thank you for these. I’ve found that sometimes (often?) its the popular and highly touted that are somewhat disappointing, and its those that are buzzed by mouth - or happened upon - which delight. I’ll look into BNC and Mendal both…
We are in Buenos Aires at this moment. We visited Mendoza 27 - 30 December and toured on for 3 days, 28 - 30 December. We hired a guide for all the right reasons. Don’t want to drink and drive. Some wineries are very hard to find.
We hired Peter Cubillos/Peter Wine Tours http://peterwinetours.com/ and we would do it again. Our tours were private. Peter and his driver would pick us up at the apartment and take us to the day’s appointments. The last appointment each day was a multi-course meal paired with wines from the winery where we had lunch. All of the meals were excellent. Peter’s tours are not the least expensive but they are absolutely the best wine tours I have ever had. Peter is a young man (32 years old) and he has worked in wineries, scrubbing concrete and stainless steel tanks, working in the laboratories, and in the fields. He knows wine and a lot about the wineries. His English is excellent and he always added information to the tour. He and I would compare our perceptions of aroma and taste as well. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO EXPERIENCE WINERIES IN MENDOZA, HIRE PETER IF HE IS AVAILABLE! Many wineries are booked up and the gourmet lunches get booked well in advance. Peter knows everyone and makes things happen.
Now that I have finished the commercial for Peter, I selected the wineries I wanted to visit with some suggestions by Peter in our advanced communication. I wanted small and medium sized wineries not tour bus wineries. I was looking for wineries where I could taste things available in the U.S. but also buy some wine that they did not export to the U.S. I had two VinGardeValise wine suitcases ready to be filled although I surprisingly filled one when we visited wineries in Uruguay.
We visited the following wineries (3 each day)
Day 1
Bodega Benegas (great Cab Franc Libertad Vineyards and Benegas Lynch Meritage Libertad Vineyards)>
Mendel (The Unus and Malbec were our favorites.
We had lunch reservations at Terrazas de los Andes an in spite of having confirmed them by phone the day before and by email the day of, our reservations were not honored. We had to scramble to find a place for lunch that was still open and we wound up at Septima. The food was great. We did not taste any wine we would have purchased.
Day 2
Puenta Estate (The Gran Cabernet Franc XI was the hit for us)
Giminez Riili (The Malbec Gran Reserva is the one we liked and bought it there since we haven’t found it in the U.S.)
Bodega La Azul was our lunch spot with multi-course lunch and wines paired with the food. (We purchased the La Azul Reserva, very good and only $20 per bottle)
Day 3
Carmelo Patti - don’t miss a visit if you can make. Carmelo is a character. (The hit for us was his Gran Assemblage)
Caelum (I didn’t know it but they do export to Texas and Texas only in the U.S. We bought a couple of older vintages of the Malbec Reserva while we were there.)
Bodega Ruca Malen was our final for the day and for our visit to Mendoza and it was not a disappointment. Outstanding lunch and some very good wines. (The Malbec Kinien was a stand out for us and we bought a couple of bottles while there.
Each of these wineries has a different approach to visitors. Some provide informative tours including of the cellars. Some do not. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit in Mendoza and would go back in a minute and we would definitely hire Peter Cubillos as our guide.
I should add that if you have the multi-course lunches at the wineries, you will be eating dinner like an Argentinian after 9 pm. One restaurant that Mendoza is famous for is 1884 Restaurante owned by Francis Mallman, a chef of world renown. By Argentinian standards 1884 is expensive. Four of us (some local friends) at there one evening. We had 3 appetizers, 4 entrees, and 2 bottles of wine and ti cost about $250. For bars and nightlife, Ave. Villanueva Aristedes is the the place to be in Mendoza. Nothing starts early though. Bars start to get busy about midnight and often shut down about 4 am. Remember that in Argentina an early dinner is at 8 pm which is about the time restaurants open. Restaurants get really busy about 9:30 pm and later.
One thing you need to know about Argentina. Tips are not included in your bill and there is no place to add them if you pay by credit card. Tips are always paid in cash and amount to approximately 10% or a little less of the bill before tax. Always have some small denomination Pesos on had to pay these tips. There are restaurants that don’t take credit cards either. There are some that you can pay in USD and you will receive Pesos in change. Not all restaurants do that though. Everywhere we have done that, we have received the correct change. The Peso to dollar floats in value daily and we have seen it as low as 12/1 and as high as 13.8/1 in our almost 3 weeks here. If you need Pesos, ask if the establishment will accept dollars. We just returned from Iguazu Falls today and we paid for the remis (like a taxi but flat rate) in USD and got much needed Pesos in change.
Michael - this is just wonderful information. I’ve come across Peter’s name recommended in other places as well (possibly on WB in earlier threads?) and it sounds like we’d be remiss not to book him.
We’ll have 4 or 5 nights in Mendoza, and I have a reservation at 1884 for our second night there. I’m a huge Mallmann fan, although I doubt he’s much there.
Your winery recs and itineraries are super helpful. Thank you for all of that. I’ll curate something fantastic and will report back.
A couple of other things I should mention about Peter Cubillos and his company. He sometimes uses a young (28) year old French woman named Emilie Giraud to guide if he is over booked. She is from the Lyon area of France. However before doing so, he asks if it is okay. It was fine with us and she conducted our tour on our first day in Mendoza. She is knowledgeable and a very good guide. The remaining two days, Peter personally conducted our tours. On the 2nd day he called to ask if we minded having one more couple with us. We told him absolutely not. We love meeting people. As it turns out, he decided not to book them and sent them to another guide because he was concerned that it would be unfair to us. Hard to turn down money but he did. While we were touring we had the opportunity to observe other guides that brought groups to wineries we were visiting. None were as engaged or knowledgeable as Peter. We made the right choice.
Enjoy your trip. Three nights was enough for us since all we did was winery visits. No hiking in the Andes or horseback riding for us. After 9 wineries and three multi-course lunches with wine, we had to surrender and get back to Buenos Aires for our trip to Iguazu Falls.
It had rained earlier in the day when we went to 1884 and the patio was opened until about 21:00 so we had to eat inside. It was a bit warm as they had apparently not turned on the air conditioning early enough. The patio is the place to be when it is available. We didn’t see Mallman. Busy running his empire I suppose
Your profile doesn’t list where you are located. Do you mind if I ask? You can tell I am a Texan myself and if I have one complaint about Argentina and its beef is that they have a very difficult time not over cooking it. I like mine what they call vuelta vuelta or black and blue in the U.S. Almost got there once. If you like beef well done, you will be in heaven.
I’m in Washington DC as of present - but my brother lives in Austin, TX, if that counts for anything. I’ve heard this same thing frequently repeated in conversations here and otherwise. I’m much more of a medium rare girl, but when in Rome…
I sent off an email to Peter and will hopefully hear back - I’m really looking forward to our time in Mendoza. More than BA, I think. Your recommendations have been invaluable - thank you for all of them.