How to Plan a Wine Tour in Mendoza, Argentina: Complete Guide

"Traveling to Mendoza and visiting wineries may be the dream plan for a wine lover or for someone who wants a few days of relaxation in what we call "Disney for adults," but it may not be as easy as you think, so we are going to give you some tips to make it the trip of your dreams."

1) Plan. It is very important to plan this tour in advance, select wineries, areas, lunches, providers, accommodation. All serious wineries require prior reservations, the tasting rooms have limited capacity, 8, 10 or 12 people, and the wineries have three or four daily shifts, when the reservation quota is full there is no more availability. There is no such thing as going to the door of the winery without a reservation and trying to enter, or to visit it, or to taste wines, or even to buy. Without a reservation you cannot enter and the ideal is to arrange reservations thirty days in advance.

2) Where to go? In Mendoza there are three wine tourism areas: Luján de Cuyo, Maipú and Valle de Uco. It is reasonable not to go from one area to another on the same day, you lose a lot of time going and living and you take away from the wineries and tastings. You also have to take into account that in each area the distances can be very large, for example between Zuccardi Piedra Infinita and Huentala Wines there is an hour and a quarter of route, and both are in the Uco Valley, so hiring someone who knows and getting advice is a good decision.

3) ¿Cómo es un día de bodegas? The standard plan for a day tour is to visit and taste at two wineries and have lunch at a third, although it is highly recommended to reduce that to one visit and tasting and one lunch; this will allow for a more relaxed day without having to run from winery to winery.

4) Listen to those who know about wine tourism. Mendoza has more than a thousand wineries, most of them, and especially the best ones, are not the most well-known. Seriously, don't believe in marketing campaigns in traditional media and awards such as: “Best winery restaurant in the world”, “Best architecture”, “Best view”, “Best chef”. The truly good ones don't buy awards to then pay for articles in La Nación or similar.

5) Schedule and Dinner. Please note that wineries are open, with some exceptions, from 10:00 to 17:00, there are no visits to a winery in the afternoon or dinner in winery restaurants. On the other hand, dinner is not usually served after having lunch at a winery, this lunch is very abundant with lots of wine and ends around 17:00, having a reservation for dinner at a restaurant is almost a waste, better to take a walk, eat something frugal and go to bed, because the next day we will continue wine tasting.

6) What am I looking for? At this point, sincerity is required. It is not necessary to boast of being a great wine connoisseur if you are not one. It is better to come to learn. You can come to Mendoza to spend a dream weekend, to try the best wines, to take the best glamorous photos, to eat like almost nowhere else. Be clear with yourself and with whoever helps you, otherwise you are likely to miss what you are looking for. If a group of friends come who want to have fun, it is not the same as if a couple comes to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. In the first case, we will look for wineries with a vibe, party-like, let's say; in the second, intimacy, elegance and romanticism. And if a wine connoisseur comes, we go for the wines, regardless of the views, the architecture or anything else. We will only choose wineries for what is inside the bottle.

7) ¿How? The wineries in Mendoza are not in the city, they are in rural areas where there is no efficient public transport system. Depending on your budget, there are many different alternatives, but the one that is not even worth considering is going in your own vehicle or a rental to visit wineries. First, because of responsibility, you will drink more than usual, then because of the alcohol tests carried out by the Mendoza Police, the fines are very, very expensive and include confiscation of the vehicle, documentation and even the arrest of the offender. The options range from a regular tour with a traditional agency, in which you leave the agency in a bus or minibus with a group of people and visit the wineries that the agency has scheduled, to a private tour with a car with a driver and bilingual and expert guide where you go to the wineries that you have chosen and almost all the visits are done in private in an exclusive room for you and whoever accompanies you, this is what Discovery Wines Mendoza is dedicated to.

8) Children and wineries: Although it can be organized, it is absolutely not recommended. A trip to the wineries in Mendoza is a plan for adults to have a relaxing getaway; it is by no means a family plan; neither the children nor the parents will have a good time; the children will be extremely bored, although it affects our sales possibilities. I must tell the truth and I say this from experience. If you cannot leave the children for two or three days, wait for them and come and have wine with them when they grow up. I am lucky enough to share wines and this wine tourism project with my children, and I can tell you that tasting a wine with them is an experience very close to complete happiness.