Vines of Mendoza: your guide to Mendoza wine
Remember I mentioned that planning our Mendoza wine country visit involved a spreadsheet? When you only have two full days to visit a region packed with so many vineyards, figuring out the best routes and timings is an Excel-worthy task. But as soon as I stumbled across the Vines of Mendoza website, my life got a whole lot easier.
Vines of Mendoza is a fabulous tasting room in the heart of the city of Mendoza (they also have an outpost at the Hyatt). Since we had to drive past the city itself from the airport to our hotel out in the country, it seemed only logical to stop in for a flight of reserve wines on our way. Call it a little introduction to the Mendoza wine offerings.
Before we even arrived, I was a loyal fan. Their website features suggestions of where to taste in the different wine valleys around Mendoza, which narrowed down my options and helped me figure out the best route to take. Anything that saves me from comparing tour times and mapping out locations is a good thing in my book!
Upon arrival, my love only grew. Vines of Mendoza put us in our own private tasting room with the absolutely fabulous Cecilia as our sommelier guide. Girlfriend knew her stuff and was friendly and chatty to boot – the best possible combination.
Of course, it was really all about drinking our first of many Mendoza wines, and the selected bottles did not disappoint. We had a real range of origins, from a Pulenta creation – made by one of the brothers of the owner of Vistalba – to a high-brow garage wine done by a well-known winemaker in his free time. We even got to taste the result of Vines of Mendozas’ own project, where investors from around the world can buy their own acre and participate in coop winemaking where all the labor is taken care of by Vines of Mendoza. Tempting…
The reviews I found online said that Vines of Mendoza was an absolute must-see, and after my experience, I have to agree. No matter which vineyards you’re headed to, make sure to give yourself an extra hour in town to take advantage of the selection and wide experience on offer here. Next time, my family decided we want to go farther and participate in the blending lab program. Because bringing home a bottle of wine is always good, but bringing home a bottle of your own wine sounds even more fun.
More in this series:
Vistalba: vines and views in Mendoza
Keeping it simple at Carmelo Patti
Lunching in luxury at Ruca Malen
What an interesting post Emily. I was intrigued and interested in knowing more about the Vines of Mendoza’s project where one can buy their own acre and participate in winemaking. Do you know where we can find more information about it? Thanks again for your wine post. They are always interesting and informative
They should have more info on the website. It really does sound like a cool program – the base cost lets you pick your grapes and pays the fees for their experts to manage everything for two years. Plus they’re finishing a luxury resort there so that you can go visit your vines! It looked pretty fabulous, I have to say, even if I don’t think “boutique vineyard owner” is in the cards for me.
Your own tasting room? Love!
It was so nice! Some people were just at tables – they may have been doing different tastings – so having our own private room was a perk.
You make me want to learn about wine!
Well my expert advice would be to just drink as much of it as you can, so it shouldn’t be too horribly difficult to start your studies
Can you believe I never went to Mendoza, I keep saying I am going to come back down but I really am!
Yes, you need a return trip!
It is amazing how wine always makes for good pictures.
So true. Just cluster a bunch of glasses together with some pretty reds and yellows, and you’ve got yourself a photo.
I loved this place.
Me too! We had such a great experience, both the wines and the people were really top notch.
We loved this place – tried a few too many but how can one resist?
There is no such thing as too many.
We’re not pressuring you to come to our lovely Mendoza, but just to encourage you to make the first step just want to tell you that Mendoza has more than 700 wineries making wine, and over 100 open to tourism, so there is plenty to visit and much more to drink!
Thanks Emliy for the post about Mendoza!
Thank you for commenting! I hope to come back in the near future.
Putting it on my list to go there when I’m in Mendoza, which is hopefully soon?
I need a “like” button on my site just for this comment. Come on down!