Travel Guide: Mendoza, Argentina
Last spring, I was flying back from Tenerife with Darcy when I read this article in the NYT about gaming your solar return. The idea is that changing locale for your birthday, and more specifically the exact timing of the sun positioning to match your time of birth, can bring fortune into your life. I found a solar return calculator, put in my birthdate details and clicked through a map. I remember the lines going through South America and triggering some fun visions in my head, like updated memories of a prior trip to Buenos Aires we went on nearly 10 years ago.
Whether it was a misinterpreted directive from a clunky online tool or actual kismet, I ended up in Argentina for my birthday in 2023. Taylor Swift announced a concert at the Estadio River Plate on November 9th and an old friend who has connections on the ground finagled a pair of tickets as a gift. On my side, I cashed in some credit card points for a FREE but tiiiiiiight middle seat on an 11-hour flight to Argentina. Yes, I marveled, I am going to Argentina to see Taylor Swift and drink wine for almost free. This unbridled joy must be what extreme couponing feels like!
My sister flew from Puerto Rico and met me at the Buenos Aires airport and we boarded a puddle-jumper for a 2 hour flight to Mendoza, where we rented a car. It was interesting to rent a car using an American credit card and receiving a favorable exchange rate. I had been conditioned to bring dollars in cash and get the informal exchange rate on the street, which was way better than the bank. I’ll elaborate more on this point, but all that to say that Argentina has changed in ways that facilitate tourism much more.
I am basing my recommendations on the two-day, jam-packed trip we did to Mendoza by car. I could have easily spent a week using Mendoza city as a hub and exploring north/west into the Andes mountains, south into Valle de Uco, and east into the desert. You’ll notice my map has pinned locations all over as we gathered recommendations from new friends!
Link to Google Map recommendations
Getting Money
Argentina is the one place I’ve traveled to that requires advance planning for money. Whereas in other countries one can just scan their card everywhere or withdraw from an ATM, Argentina moves differently.
Argentina’s monetary policy is messy and there are several exchange rates. At banks, you’d get the official rate, which is never to your advantage, so don’t go to a bank or try to use an ATM. The best rate is the dólar blue, which is sort of like a black market exchange rate. Using your (non-AMEX) credit card at retailers, restaurants and other outlets, you’ll get slightly below the dólar blue rate and we found it practical. We also traveled with cash dollars in different denominations, super handy for tipping service workers and paying for cab rides. Also: many restaurants and stores in tourist areas have their own unofficial house exchange rate, because everyone who can afford to will hoard dollars. Don’t be shy to ask for the house rate when settling the bill!
A note: You might be steered toward “arbolitos”, or street currency traders who will whisk you off to a private room for exchanging. It’s an experience very reminiscent of buying counterfeit bags in NYC’s Chinatown… mostly no trouble but also not worth the risk of the unknown. My advice is don’t entertain these offers.
Getting There & Around
The Mendoza airport is right in the city and there are multiple flights a day from EZE in Buenos Aires that run about $100 each way. We rented a car to visit the vineyards, which was pricey (~$90/day) but well worth it. Gas was affordable, automatic transmissions are common (but more expensive) and the quality of the roads was a mixed bag. The furthest we drove out was Los Chacayes in Valle de Uco, about 1.5 to 2 hours away on highway. Expect to drive 1-2 hours to visit most vineyards; not to say that the wineries closer to the city are not worth a visit!
A few regions we would recommend based on the quality of the wines we sampled are Los Chacayes, Gualtallary/Tupungato, Vista Flores and Luján de Cuyo.
Where to Stay
There are many boutique hotels outside of the city where you can stay in a very dreamy villa for $150-200 per night. Some of them have restaurants on premise and make their own wine or are near bodegas. For this type of experience, I recommend checking out Club Tapiz, which is very close to the city and easy to get to.
Another idea is to book a more remote luxury accommodation, especially if traveling as a family. Estancia Uspallata came up several times in my research and the remote location in the Andes looks amazing. They make wine and have a restaurant on premise, and the chalet available for rent sleeps up to 12.
We decided to stay in the city so we could walk to breakfast and dinner from our apartment. Airbnb is a great option in Mendoza, as it allows regular people the opportunity to earn dollars by renting out their apartments at great prices. We booked a 3 bedroom apartment with a balcony for around $75 per night.
Wine Touring
Natural wine lovers will adore Bodega L’Orange, an experimental bodega by Ernesto Catena (of the famous Catena winemaking family) and his wife and fellow winemaker Joanna Foster. Visits are open to the public exclusively by prior arrangement through WhatsApp for lunch, wine tasting and a tour of the grounds. The property has a garage-sized bodega, a vegetable garden, a fully outfitted indoor/outdoor kitchen and a small home. Our host Paula guided us through the tasting and the grounds, which we were free to roam (respectfully of course). Catena is one of the 3 largest wine producers in Argentina, yet the scale of production in this facility is very small and meant to be room for play and innovation. We saw wine made in concrete eggs, Spanish tinajas (amphorae) and Georgian qvevris (also amphorae), but no wood. Our lunch was cooked on site by chef Martín and it featured dishes of the region like tomaticán (a shakshouka-esque tomato and egg stew) and arroz al disco (similar to Spanish paella). At the end, we had the opportunity to buy bottles at a modest discount. This was a really, really fun experience.
Bodega Krontiras is a natural vineyard with Greek roots situated in Luján de Cuyo, about 30 minutes south from Mendoza city. We drove down a dirt road for about 5-10 km to reach their gated entrance, where we just buzzed the intercom and announced ourselves as visitors. Probably best to schedule a visit in advance but we were able to hop on to a tour that had just started. Our host Marcela told us a beautiful story about their biodynamic practices involving a bull horn that gets stuffed with valerian and chamomile flowers and manure. Twice a year, they bury it in the “energetic center” of the vineyard, where it charges up with the energy of the moon and decomposes into a nutrient-rich substrate that gets diluted and used to feed all the vines. I had never heard of this tradition and we found that Bodega L’Orange has a similar practice in their vineyard. For a person with mystical tendencies and a belief that the astral bodies influence nature and humans, I really connected with this ritual… even as I understand the vines probably need more nutrients than the one horn could ever supply. Visits here are every two hours starting at 9:30am and can be arranged by Whatsapp.
Driving all around Mendoza and being spoiled with the views of the Andes mountains makes a visit to The Vines the perfect chance to get close. Located in Valle de Uco about 1.5 hours south of Mendoza city, this compound houses around 1,500 acres of vines, 6 bodegas and a hotel & resort at the very foothills of the Andes. We were greeted by Mariana Onofri, the wine director for the project and a winemaker under her own label, Alma Gemela. She explained the unique concept of The Vines, where you can buy a small vineyard, contract the maintenance, labor and winemaking to a team of experts and receive labeled and fully legal bottles shipped back to you. Of course, many of the plots are owned by winemakers who make and market their own wine – you will see many bottles in stores labeled as coming from “Los Chacayes”, which is this area. I had to inquire with Mariana, just in case I ever hit the jackpot, what is the price to all of this. A hectare of planted vines goes for $100,000-120,000 plus $4,000 per year in maintenance, which gives you grapes for about 700 bottles of wine. The total per-bottle cost ranges from $6 for a young wine to $35 for barrel-aged wines. Could be a fun project to make and market your own wine!
Also at The Vines, you’ll be able to make appointments for visits at other bodegas that are open to the public like Ver Sacrum. To make the most of your visit to The Vines, plan for at least an afternoon with time for dinner, or a full day to really take it all in.
Altos Las Hormigas is on the eastern edge of Luján de Cuyo, about 1 hour east of Mendoza City, where you start to see a more dry and flat landscape. This bodega is not open to the general public but we reached out and Estefanía Litardo offered us a private tour and tasting as a courtesy to a fellow wine professional. (We added a few of their wines to our collection!) This bodega was started in the 1990s by Italian winemakers who recognized the unique terroir rich in minerals and active calcareous material washed down from the Andes. Their winemaking is natural even as it is different from the biodynamic “juju” of the moon and energetic centers we saw in other bodegas. In the arid fields, the low humidity negates the need for anti-mildew chemicals, and smart companion planting keeps invasive ants under control. They use zero chemicals in the bodega, handling everything with utmost sanitary controls and testing. They rely on concrete and large oak foudres to age the wine gently, with no new woods barrel in sight. I was struck by the elegance of their wines and how fresh the fruit feels, even as I noticed the distinctive flavors of wood aging. If you’re a wine professional (or bold enough to ask), inquire about a private visit.
Dining Out
Club Tapiz: This boutique hotel was recommended by Estefanía from Altos Las Hormigas for lunch. What a beautiful meal! We enjoyed a three course lunch on their garden surrounded by roses under the shade of a tall tree. The dishes make good use of the local ingredients and we sampled morcilla (blood sausage), steak, local cheeses and the prized quince paste of the region. With wine, the lunch runs about $30 per person, and they also allow you to open your own wine for a modest corkage fee.
El Asadito was our first stop for a steak and wine lunch in Mendoza. Asado is pretty much everywhere and I didn’t have any bad steak; they all range from good to great. The sidewalk patio was nice, they carried a great selection of wines by the bottle and had fun cuts of meats and sausages.
Siete Fuegos at The Vines: Francis Mallmann lent his name to this restaurant housed inside the hotel at The Vines in Valle de Uco. We came with the intention of having a drink and a bite while we charged up our phones to drive back to the city, and our bartender Joaquín convinced us to stay for a little longer. The sunset views of the Andes from this semi-open restaurant are absolutely insane! And the service is leisurely enough where you can grab your glass and wander the vines right outside between courses. I found it oddly touristy to see crispy chicken sandwiches and burgers on a Francis Mallmann menu after seeing him on Chef’s Table – in that sense, I think we made the right choice to snack at the bar instead of sitting down for the $75 3-course menu. Still, I would recommend it for the views and the beautiful drinks.
Cocina Gardenia is a small and casual restaurant in the city that was close to our Airbnb. We enjoyed small plates that wouldn’t feel out of place in a trendy, hipster restaurant in Providence. Ingredients were fresh and locally sourced. A dinner for two with a bottle of wine ran us about $25.
Fuente y Fonda came highly recommended from one of our new wine friends, and although I didn’t get to try it, it’s on my list for a return visit!
Buying Wine to Bring Home!
It’s not a good visit to Mendoza (or Argentina for that matter) if you don’t plan to bring home some wine. I found Fans del Vino to be a well-stocked boutique with fun design and a good variety of traditional/classic Argentinian wines, as well as the new-age natural stuff we love. All wine shops will be happy to wrap up your bottles in paper or cardboard to protect them, and you can bring some of these 3M WineSkin bags to further protect your investment. A carry-on sized suitcase will fit around 16-18 bottles and should be within the weight limit for checked baggage. You can easily get away with 2 suitcases per person as checked luggage; the US allows wine for personal consumption and I haven’t been questioned so far.
Some labels to look out for when shopping: Krontiras, Susana Balbo, Matias Riccitelli, Altos Las Hormigas, Ver Sacrum and Stella Crinita, and of course whatever your salesperson is passionate about!