Napa Valley Argentina Style!


Advertisement
Argentina's flag
South America » Argentina » Mendoza » Mendoza
October 15th 2012
Published: October 16th 2012
Edit Blog Post

Napa in its infancy. After years of making wine with quantity dominating quality, Argentina is making an effort to be recognized as a producer of quality wines. It may not be on same level as Napa and other producers of great wines, but it would be hard to beat the ambiance that we experienced during our all day tour of 5 wineries overlooking 20,000 foot snow covered Andean peaks.

We arrived via Andesmar bus on our overnight bus pretty refreshed thanks to their lie flat seats. We stayed at Plaza Italia B&B which is beautiful 4 bedroom B&B across from, of course, Plaza Italia. Mendoza has 5 plazas of which the largest is Plaza Independicia. By far the most impressive place is a public area called San Martin Park which is over 900 acres of trees, a lake, and Zumba classes. It has Golden Gate park feel with lots of people walking, jogging and enjoying the outdoors. There are two main outdoors café streets in Mendoza. One has a quiet solitude feel, and the other, especially at night, has music playing outside and some wild looking bars with different colored lighting.

The wine tour was the highlight of our time in Mendoza. We visited five wineries. Mendel, a medium sized producer, Carmelo Patti and Domaine San Diego which are very small scale, Ruca Malen and Norton who would rival any Napa winery for investment of infrastructure for producing consistent high quality wines. Carmelo Patti was the owner, wine maker, tour guide and totally emotionally invested in his operation. Born in Sicily, he came to Argentina when he was one years old. You could feel the love for his bodega! The same could be said for Domaine San Diego where the tour was conducted by the owner/wine maker’s daughter who was the wine maker at Trapiche. Now he has his own family operation. We had a fantastic 5 course dinner with individual wine pairing at Ruca Malen. The setting was fantastic with the snow capped Andes overlooking the vineyards. Check out the pictures.

In a few hours, we leave for Bariloche and the Northern Patigonia region of lakes and snow capped mountains and chocolate.


Additional photos below
Photos: 16, Displayed: 16


Advertisement

San Martin ParkSan Martin Park
San Martin Park

Over 900 acre park!


17th October 2012

Great seeing these pictures!
Thanks so much for the pictures, looks truly beautiful. Now I'm curious about the chocolate!??
18th October 2012

Chocolate
Hello from Bariloche! This area is in northern Patigonia and has a German Swiss influence. So as well as parillas, it has chocolate stores everywhere. Not a bad way to go - bife de lomo and chocolate!
17th October 2012

Winery day
What beautiful scenery of the mountains. What on earth were the delicacies on the plates??? Appears you're having a wonderful time. Good for you!
18th October 2012

Hello Karen & Luis
We are currently in Bariloche. Ruca Malen and the lunch were beautiful. The one was a squash ravioli and the glass plate was a goumet version of locro. Having a great time but missing banging some balls on the tennis court!
19th October 2012
Domaine San Diego wine tasting

Wineries
Nice looking wineries. Did you have any Malbec? Looks like your having a good time. The countryside is beautiful!! Love, Wayne & Phyllis
19th October 2012
Domaine San Diego wine tasting

Malbec?
I think we have had some Malbec almost every day for the last couple of weeks! A lot of beef as well. I understand the beef is grass fed and slaughtered at a younger age than in the US. It does seem leaner.
17th December 2013
Ruca Malen Winery

Stunning
We will get to this part of the world some day and do a bit of wine tasting.

Tot: 0.157s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 54; dbt: 0.0671s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb