Back in April 2015 I flew down to Buenos Aires and then, with a little help from my good friend Silvana, drove cross-country to Mendoza (an 11-hour ordeal made longer by jet lag and police checkpoints), then had three beautiful days in an amazing wine region. The pictures below barely do the place justice, but they’re a step. A mildly out-of-order step, at least, because there doesn’t seem to be any way to organize the photos in a gallery by simple file name (clearly, I’m missing something), but a step nonetheless.
Over those beautiful days, I got to eat and drink some of the best fare the region had to offer, from cosmopolitan restaurants in Mendoza to food trucks by a famous apple tree. I didn’t get the full story on that one, unfortunately. I did take pictures.
I fell in love with a town south of Mendoza proper called Tupungato – it was quaint, pretty, and perfectly situated in wine country. Analogous, maybe, to Solvang as it relates to Santa Barbara, although thankfully without the absurd Danish influence. I didn’t take enough pictures there, but I did have a couple of very nice meals and some good wine (one from a house called “Finca Flichman” that I found particularly fun).
More trip and winery details follow the break!
The wineries I visited were as follows:
- Trapiche
- Zuccardi
- Clos de Chacras
- Dante Robino
- Giaquinta
- Salentein
That may not seem like much of a haul when I’ve had single days in Napa that almost matched that total, but there were a couple of factors working against me there. Turns out that you have to have a reservation almost everywhere (we were turned away by the gate guard at many places we tried because our names weren’t on his list – it was like trying to get into a hot bar in LA), and each place took you on a full-fledged cellar tour. These were all interesting, to a point, but once you’ve done one, you don’t really need the full experience at each place. Had they been run personally by the winemakers or a family member, that would have been great, but these places are almost all giant farms that have massive marketing budgets and renovations to match. Giaquinta was the sole exception, and I could have stayed there all day, chatting with the matriarch and drinking her generous pours.
