Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina. They are famous for their Malbecs and Cab Savs. We were lucky enough to be able to spend the week of Christmas in Mendoza exploring vineyards, enjoying and cooking incredible food, and relaxing in natural hot springs. While we certainly missed all of our friends and family over the holidays Mendoza made it quite easy to live in the moment and only concern yourself with which wine you wanted to try next!
Mendoza is a large city just east of the Argentina-Chile the border that sits in the foothills of the Andes mountains. It was a popular destination for Italian immigrants in the 1900s and the culture of Mendoza is still steeped with their love of wine and food. While Mendoza is known for its wine, the city itself was quite large and busy. We were expecting a Napa/Sonoma type setting but it turns out over a million people live in the Mendoza metropolitan region! The city was filled with tree-lined streets and many parks. The neighborhood we stayed in was a nice, quiet part of the city that we really enjoyed walking around in and exploring. There was even a fruit and vegetables stand on the sidewalk across the street from our Airbnb. But obviously, our time in Mendoza started with wine.
There are three main wine regions in Mendoza; Maipu, Lujan de Cuyo, and the Uco Valley. We decided to explore Lujan de Cuyo and Uco Valley on the recommendations of some friends and travel blogs. We found a Wine and Ride in Lujan de Cuyo that organized tastings and tours at three vineyards and provided bicycles for us to ride between the stops!
Our first vineyard tour was as Vinorum. We were provided a private tour (aka no one else booked the Wine and Ride that day, but we prefer to think of it as a private tour) of the vineyard by one of the owners and her daughter. The owner’s husband’s father had immigrated from Italy to Mendoza and built and maintained various tools for use in the wine making process. The husband also built tools for the wine making process before buying Vinorum. Over time both generations had collected a ton of historic tools and machinery from different generations of wine making and they were all on display in Vinorum as a sort of mini museum. It was really interesting to hear about the history of wine making in the region and to see the progression to modern day wine technology.
We then were able to taste some excellent wines; a Chardonnay, Malbec, and Cabernet Sauvignon. We finished up and got on our bikes for our first ride to our next location.
Ironically the next vineyard, Renecar, was across the street. But we still were able to enjoy our bikes with a ride through the vineyards for a little bit and even found a little pond for some pictures. This was the first hot day of our entire trip since we were no longer in the Andes or on the Pacific Ocean so we were enjoying the sun and didn't mind the short ride.
Renecar was a bigger vineyard than Vinorum (over a million liters produced each year vs only 200,000) and the scale of all the barrels and storage tanks needed were pretty impressive. We were able to see a live assembly line of them bottling the wine, it was quite a production; the process from grabbing an empty bottle, cleaning it, filling it with wine, and corking it probably took 20 seconds for a single bottle but they would finish a wine bottle about every 1-2 seconds. While we were walking out in the vines their allotted water for the day started to come in from the main river. All of the water access from the river in Mendoza is managed by…someone? Honor system? And each vineyard has allotted times where their canals need to be open and closed so everyone can get their fair share.
We then sat down for our tastings; Rose, Milamore (a wine made in the style of the original vineyards here in Mendoza), Malbec, Sparkling Brute Rose, and finally a Chardonnay. We hopped back on our bikes and were able to hit the road this time to our last vineyard.
The back roads between the vineyards were idyllic country roads lined with trees blowing in the wind, tons of shade, and views of the mountains and grape vines. No, it wasn't the wine talking, why would you suggest that? Our last vineyard was a smaller vineyard called Casa Bermellon. We turned our bikes in and then had a private tasting provided to us at our table by one of the sommeliers that worked at Casa Bermellon.
He talked to us about the history of the vineyard and their philosophy of making wine; they focus more on the grapes and harvest and don't store their wine for very long compared to other vineyards in the region. We were also provided a cheese plate and a pair of empanadas as part of the Wine and Ride tour. Unfortunately our table was right next to a huge open fire grill so after seeing a bunch of delicious food being cooked during our tastings, we also ordered a steak to enjoy. We were able to taste a Malbec, a Cab Franc & Malbec blend, an aged Malbec, and an uncommon type of wine (to us) called a Petit Verdot.
We had a full day of wine, sunshine, and cycling so we took a cab home and rested up for our next wine adventure!
The Uco Valley region is about an hour and a half’s drive from Mendoza. We rented a teeny tiny car for the day and headed south. It was pretty overcast in the morning but the drive still had some nice views of the valley and vineyards.
Our first stop was at Bodega Domaine Bousquet. This was a very large and organic vineyard. They have over 80 hectares of land and sell 50% of their production in the United States. We sat down with our sommelier Lucas who told us about their process and philosophy (they are a 100% organic vineyard and have been since 1997). We tried a Rose, Malbec, and a Cabernet Sauvignon.
We learned that the word Malbec means “bad batch” in French because the first time the grapes were used they turned out very poor due to the weather that year and were dismissed as popular grapes to use. But apparently they do great in the weather in Mendoza and so they have become synonymous with the region.
Our next vineyard tasting was at La Azul and was actually at their restaurant rather than in the vineyard, so instead of a tour we ate lunch with a wine pairing for each course! We had a great lunch with steak, pulled pork, empanadas, asparagus, and desert! Throughout the meal we were brought different wines to taste including a Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Merlot & Cab Sav blend. Uco Valley and Lujan de Cuyo provided us with lots of great wine and memories and we can not wait to be back to try out even more wines and food.
While Mendoza is most famous for its wine, we really enjoyed the city itself. Our Airbnb was a cozy apartment and was one of the first places we have stayed that had a working oven this whole trip so we were excited to cook. We cooked some comfort food meals like roasted chicken with veggies and mac-and-cheese and grilled steak with mushrooms. We loved having the fruit and vegetables stand so close so we got as much as we could there. We discovered a new pasta dish famous in Argentina called Sorrentinos which are stuffed pasta shells covered in sauce, almost like a bigger ravioli or an Italian dumpling.
The Parque de San Martin was a huge park and even had a regatta club on a lake in the park and multiple soccer stadiums. Our only critique of Mendoza (seriously, our only critique, this place was amazing and everyone should visit) was there was almost no Christmas spirit! Susan was starting a downward spiral as she realized she wasn't going to get any Christmas cheer this holiday season. Luckily our Airbnb had Netflix on the TV so we were able to watch The Grinch to save her.
Christmas Day was still a great day though because we scheduled a full day at a Thermal Spa at the natural hot springs outside of town. We were picked up in the morning and headed to the Cachueta Spa in the mountains. They had various naturally heated thermal pools to sit and soak in. The property was at a beautiful villa along a river and we enjoyed the cool, mountain air while sitting in hot tubs all day. They also provided a full “creole” lunch buffet for us but we think their creole is different then our creole because it was essentially a bunch of grilled meats and veggies, which were delicious! We were starving and ate too much (and also had a great bottle of wine) so the afternoon was spent mostly napping on the deck chairs rather than getting back in the hot springs. We did find an incredible steam sauna that was built into a natural cave that was heated by the natural hot water flowing under the rocks. It felt like where Batman would go to relax in the bat cave after a long day fighting crime.
Unfortunately our time in Mendoza had to end at some point and on Boxing Day we took a bus back to Santiago. We had such an incredible time enjoying the views, wine, and food in Mendoza that we know we will be back soon. All that's left to figure out is how many people we can convince to come back with us.