Anyone been?
My folks are going this winter (December)
Language not a barrier for them
Any suggestions related to wine/food in the area?
TIA
Went in 07 so some things have probably changed. Stayed outside the city itself, which I found a bit dirty and unpleasant, in Agrelo at Cavas Wine Lodge. Loved it. A must is 1884 by Francis Malmann. Good eating pretty much throughout. A few older threads on Mendoza will give more recommendations.
Not yet Chris. Will be there 27 - 30 December ourselves. Three days of touring on the schedule then New Year’s Eve at a closed door restaurant in BA.
My wife and I went in early 06. Here is snapshot of our itinerary. Skip Cavas de Weinert. At Postaldel
Plata, we met Michel Roland, who was having dinner at nearby table. He let us sample some wine from his several projects in the area. Club Tapiz, close to Mendoza was great. Second the visitto 1824, but don’t be surprised if the taxi seems to be taking you to a warehouse area. You could stay at Park Hyatt in Mendoza. Good tasting room across the street - maybe Vines of Mendoza, if it’s still there.
We got English speaking driver for our time in the area. He was also supposed to know wine, but not much. I worked out our itinerary with Argentina travel agent. I believe these days there are many wine/ food focused travel guides or tours. I also think you could find travel agent focused on wine. Helped to have driver, given geographic spread of wineries.
Th Mar30 Buenos Aires-Mendoza
Mendoza-Uco Valley (surface)
Meeting upon arrival Mendoza and transfer south towards
the Uco Valley - visit:
10:00 AM Cavas de Weinert
11:15 AM Altavista
12:20 PM Nieto Senetiner with lunch
15:30 PM Fabre Montmayou
Postales del Plata 2 nights with Breakfast daily
Fr Mar31 Uco Valley
Full day visiting vineyards in the area including:
10:00 AM Bodega Salentein
12:30 PM Altus with lunch
14:00 PM Lurton or CLos del los Siete
Sa Apr01 Uco Valley-Mendoza (surface)
11:00 AM Lagarde
12:00 PM Cavas de Cano with lunch
15:00 PM La Rural
Club Tapiz 2 nights with Breakfast
NOTE: Tonight you might have dinner at Francis Mallman’s
Restaurant 1824 (not included)
Su Apr02 Mendoza
AM City tour of Mendoza
Follow-up to my post above. I wish I had toured the Catena winery. Loved their wines during the trip (some single vineyard you can’t get in the states). Also discovered Dona Paula, Malbec and Cab blends. Also, give Torrentes a try.
We had a private tasting at Mendel that didn’t disappoint.
FYI, they should take a day trip to the High Andes.
Well I’ve been to see the wines we imported.
Only thing I can suggest is to make sure you’re not a vegan and to bring your own vegetables and most importantly, make sure you like your meat well done.
They don’t really think about vegetables - it’s about the meat!
If you have some extra time, consider going up to Cafayate and Salta.
Just got back a few weeks ago and will try and post some specific thoughts later today when I get time.
Thanks everyone!!
We are limiting our visits to three wineries per day. We will miss many but visit some about which I am curious for one reason or another.
December 28 - Monday (Maipú/Luján Area)
Benegas Liynch Winery
Mendel Winery
Lunch and tasting at Terrazas de los Andes
December 29th – Tuesday (Uco Valley Area)
Pulenta Estate Winery
Gimenez Riili Winery
Lunch and tasting at La Azul Winery
December 30th - Wednesday (Luján de Cuyo)
Achaval Ferrer Winery
Caelum Winery
Lunch and tasting Ruca Malen Winery
We are also having dinner in Mendoza with Mark Addington and his wife of Lost in the Andes and we will be tasting his wines at dinner. Mark is a fellow Texan.
In Buenos Aires, we will be tasting the wines of Bodega Noemia (Patagonia) at their office in Buenos Aires. We will definitely be bringing two of their upper level wines home with us.
The goal is to bring home two cases of wine from makers whose product is either not available or hard to get in our area. When you live in Texas that covers a lot of ground.
As others have recommended, we also have reservations at Francis Mallman’s 1884 Restaurante in Mendoza. We are really looking forward to this part of our trip.
Looking forward to your notes Cody. You live with the same supply problem all of us in Texas do. We would be very interested to know what you thought was worth bringing back to Texas.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Salentein. Great lunch and wine-tasting.
Aside from the many great suggestions here, I have one non-wine suggestion: paragliding in the Andes. I don’t have the contact of the guy I went with, but you shouldn’t have trouble finding a good guide. Unique and fun experience, riding the currents with the condors. Wear good shoes (trainers) and lace them up, I almost lost a shoe while taking off!
As I mentioned above we just got back from a trip to Mendoza about 6 weeks ago and we had a great time. We only did 2 days of wine tastings but we found all the wineries, and the people in general, to be extremely gracious and very friendly. We stayed at the Park Hyatt in Mendoza which was nice and in a good location in Mendoza to get around easily. The rooms were nice and modern, almost a European vibe to them. It has a “casino” attached but it ain’t exactly the Wynn. Food at the hotel was decent but I would recommend going outside for dinner and drinks. One weird thing was there really isn’t a bar at the hotel, have to get drinks in the lobby. If I were going with my wife I would definitely stay at Cavas Wine Lodge! An absolutely gorgeous view of the Andes, rooms are individually scattered throughout the vineyard and the restaurant was very good. Much more romantic and from what I’ve seen and been told this is the nicest and certainly most romantic option.
As far as the wine is concerned, we started our tours at Catena Zapata which turned out to be our favorite. Views are great and the architecture is awesome, done in a Mayan style with an observation deck on top with breathtaking views. Starts with a short but informative video on the history of Catena Zapata and then moves to some barrel tastings. After that you tour the facilities and conclude with a tasting in an upstairs tasting room. We tasted the 2013 Catena Alta chard, 2011 Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino, 2010 Nicolas Catena Zapata and asked if there was any way to taste the White Stones chard and the were nice enough to oblige. The reds were great and the Nicolas was our favorite. This was my first time with chardonnay from Mendoza and I have to say the chards were by far the surprise of the tastings to me. I really enjoyed them and they seemed as a whole to be lighter oaked, great minerality and more Chablis like than I was expecting. No Rombauer buttered popcorn here, just very crisp and enjoyable. All the people here were great and we were actually toured by a young lady whose family is the owners. She advised us that the prices at the winery are generally than you can find in retail stores around Mendoza so best to buy from them. I found the honesty refreshing and bought a couple of bottles there just because we had such a great time.
We next went to Pulenta which is on a much smaller scale than Catena but wonderful as well. I was surprised at how expensive the high end Malbecs have gotten the last few years and these ended up being by far the best reds we tasted in the under $75 range. Most were around $40-50 I believe and delivered over that price range for me. The one polarizing wine we tasted there was their Cab Franc which they said people either love or hate and was easy to see why. I was the only one of the group with extensive wine knowledge and also the only one who didn’t like this. They asked “what is the first thing that you smell in this wine?” to which I replied “jalapeno and green pepper”. The wine was very green, which was a turnoff to me but the other seemed to enjoy it. The single vineyard malbecs were very nice and definitely worth check out.
Next up was Vina Cobos. We have a good friend who knows Paul Hobbs so think we might have gotten a bigger tasting than normal as we tried probably close to 15 wines. We started with the Felino wines which are their entry level stuff and were actually quite nice for daily drinkers and parties. From there moved to the Bramare line which was a clear step up. We again liked the chardonnay and some of the different malbecs were really nice as well. We then got to taste the Vina Cobos Volturno which was on a different level. I wish these weren’t so expensive because they really are nice.
Next up was a stop at Achaval Ferrer. This was by far the most disappointing tasting. Once again the people were great and the wines were very nice as well but after doing a few barrel samples we only tasted two wines from bottle and one was a fortified Malbec. We were the last appointment of the day so maybe they were eager to leave but just wasn’t as good of an experience as the others.
On the way to Mendoza our driver said he had one more place he wanted to take us if we didn’t mind where they make “trashy” wines. He said it’s nothing elaborate and the wines are cheap but wanted us to try. After a day full of tastings we were more than happy to oblige and drink another glass or two. We pulled up to an old warehouse with a small “tasting room” that was a tiny office on the side. It was the warehouse of Carmelo Patti, a well known winemaker in a unique setting. He was very personable and took us through his warehouse with wine stacked 20 ft high. Carmelo is one of the few, or perhaps the only one, who ages his wines for years in bottle before releasing them. Only when he feels they are ready does he release and in this case the current cabernet was 2006. We tasted the cabernet, malbec and grand assemblage, all of which were really good but the cabernet was the star to me. I believe these were around $30 and the steal of the trip by far. A cool experience and a very unexpected one.
My general thoughts about the wines on the trip were that while I like Malbec, I honestly don’t love it, regardless of price. I was very pleasantly surprised by the cabernet and chardonnay in the region and actually preferred them to the malbecs. My favorite malbecs were those grown at higher altitudes, Uco Valley I believe. The chards are made in a style I much prefer to most in Cali and were what I enjoyed the most.
In regards to restaurants we first went to a place recommended by some locals called Don Mario. Not as fancy as some but the food was really good and 6 of us ate and drank like kings for about $250 which was crazy cheap to me since we had 3 bottles of wine. The steak was very good and came in chops that seemed to be measured by the pound, not ounce. Go hungry!
We had lunch at Cavas Wine Lodge which was great. Wonderful setting, gorgeous grounds and had a salmon filled gnocchi that was very good. Highly recommend this for couples.
We had dinner the last night at 1884 and it was absolutely incredible! They have a wonderful bar with a vast selection of liquors and some very skilled bartenders. They also have an outdoor seating, dining area that is something out of a movie. Quaint fire pit next to a chefs area where you can watch them cook the steaks and cut the massive bone-in rib-eyes they serve up to perfection. Wine list was very good, we had a Catena Zapata Cabernet and a Cheval des Andes. I had the risotto, which was incredible, and other had the steaks which were done perfectly. This is a beautiful spot with incredible food and service. This is a must do!
As far as bringing wine back we were told that we could bring several cases back per person. I brought back 2 cases, and others in our group did the same, and had no issues at all. You will find there are several bottles at most wineries that aren’t available in the states and that is where I tried to focus my buying. Honestly, you can get most stuff as cheap or cheaper from Specs and don’t have to mess with the hassle of transporting it back. Buy the stuff only available in Argentina and pick up the rest at Specs or other retail stores.
Hope this helps guys!
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Park Hyatt is a great place to stay. Lots of good dining options within walking distance. Didn’t bother with the casino, but the spa is top notch.
Maria Antonetta is very good, as is Azafran.
Catena Zapata is a very good tour, and we had a nice tasting at Mendel. My other two stops were via trade stuff, so I’m not sure what the experience would be like for non-ITB.
We’re at the end of November for a few days staying at the Park Hyatt. I know we’ll tour some wineries but do I want a guided tour or do it myself?
Cody, We are going to Mendoza this October followed by a dove hunting side trip to Cordoba. Just curious about how you got your two cases of wine back to Waco.
Thanks for the great write up Cody. It looks like I might have to rethink visiting AF although I have some great wines from them in the past. But a visit to Carmelo Patti sounds like fun.
We aren’t hotel people so we have rented an apartment through Airbnb.
We too will only bring back wines we can’t find at Spec’s or TWM in the Dallas area and quite frankly that is quite a few of them. You must come up here or go to Austin to find a Spec’s unless they opened one in Waco. No spontaneous purchases for you.
Did you exchange USD for Pesos at the blue dollar rate when you were there? If so, were the wines still more expensive than here in Texas? I had hoped to be under U.S. prices but then again, I really wasn’t focused on things I could get locally.
We did a dove/pigeon hunt as well and had a blast! I just went to a local wine shop, bought 2 styro shippers, packed them tight and checked them as luggage. Any time I was asked what it was I told them wine and had no problems
We do have a Specs here but it is a pathetic excuse of a store! I go to Dallas often so plenty of chances to buy good wines:)
We did exchange money and did it in less than reputable places to get the best rate. Instead of 11 to 1 we were able to get around 14 to 1 which certainly helps. At that rate you might be able to save a few dollar on buying wine there but we honestly found it wasn’t really enough to mess with by the time I added the additional hassle and cost of an extra checked bag. I’m sure you can save a few bucks but we weren’t really buying enough to worry about.
Still interested in hearing recs for wine tours!