Amen to that...about a week from now will be one year since our trip. The fact that most of the wineries are winding down from the busiest part of their year made it a great time to visit. There also weren't all that many tourists...many of our tours were just my wife and I which was really enjoyable too.

I keep telling my wife to win the lottery so we can make the trip annually. After all we still have 900+ wineries to either sample a wine from or do a formal tour :D

Andimal, have a great trip. Where did you eventually decide to stay?

Oh good to hear.

We've got a couple of free nights to use up at the Hyatt so are planning on going at the beginning of June. ^

We finally settled on "The Modern Hotel" in Mendoza, but it's a few blocks off the Plaza Independencia. We wanted to be a bit more central/not have a car than any of the country places would have allowed us. We did end up to decide renting a car one day to drive west and see the mountains a bit to supplement our three days of winery visits.

Good deal. Hopefully you'll get to see all the really big peaks. Aconcogua (sp?) was clouded over the day we drove up there so we didn't get to see that.

Make sure you stop at Puenta del Inca (I'm sure you already are planning that but just in case). It's really interesting and we actually found a few craft types of things to buy up there that we couldn't find in the city. We get lots of questions about the stuff we bought up there.

I definitely want to get up to Puenta del Inca. You were there this time of year- did you have any trouble with snow?

None at all. The weather was beautiful in Mendoza and the day we went up to Puenta del Inca it was cold and windy (temps around 40 with strong winds). It looked like on the way down there was quite a storm brewing but I don't think you'll have any issues.

We almost didn't make it up there because a whiskey truck jackknifed on the road carrying an entire load of some really cheap Seagrams whiskey. Fortunately we got to the scene very shortly after it happened so the traffic backup wasn't bad, but when we came down a few hours later it was backed up for a couple miles.

The only other thing of note is that there are checkpoints on the Highway. We had all our luggage in our car and got stopped at one on way back to Mendoza. The guy must have thought we were coming from the Chilean side. Neither of us spoke Spanish but he understood us enough to realize we had only gone to Puenta del Inca and were driving to Mendoza to fly home so he let us go after a minute or two.

Great, thanks for the tips!

There´s been a last minute change of travel plans which might see me going to Mendoza for a few days. How easy is it to book a wine and Andes tours from the hotel when I arrive for the next couple of days?

Its best to book as far in advance as possible... but still, something last minute may work, at least at the larger bodegas.

Gaucho et al, considering either spending Labor Day in EZE or MDZ. Right now I have flights to both & Hotels (Park Hyatt) just need to know if the following itinerary is actually doable.

Depart US 9/3 (Friday) arriving MDX 9/4 around 10a on Sat 9/4. 1/2 day wine tour (Lunch in town(?) & 2 wineries in the afternoon w/an early dinner somewhere).

Sunday, 9/5 - Full day of tours. 3-5 wineries etc...

Monday, 9/6 - 1/2 day tour, flight MDZ-SCL departs at 6:00 p.m.

I have 3 days till the hold on the tough to find MDZ itinerary expires so suggestions are very welcome as to if it's doable (I don't have any vacation time left this year), if it's the wrong time of year and what type of guides we should talk with.

From my understanding not many winerys offer tours on Sundays. Kind of a slow day to do wine tasting..

Some are open on Sundays if I recall, but not that many of them. You'll also find (and it's been mentioned in this thread many times) that 3 wineries is about the most you can do in a day.

We did 4 wineries in one day only because Benegas was open for tours until 6pm and it was a very fun, but also very long day. You aren't going to have any time to enjoy any of the places if you tried 5 and the distances between all of them is pretty far if you intended to go to some of the more popular/recommended ones.

If your flight leaves at 6pm on Monday you could easily tour until 2 or 3pm if don't go to the Uco Valley your driver will take you to the airport. You don't need to be there all that early for the return trip home.

Whatever you do, please do not forget to make appointments..... the few places that do accept walk in visits are usually the least interesting venues.

Thanks!
 

Just realized I never came back to the Argentina forum to say thanks for everyone's help in planning my trip to MDZ and EZE. We had a great time, drank tons of wine, and ate some amazing meals.

I'll second the recc for hiring Jorge (contact info earlier in the thread) as your driver - he was responsible, knowledgeable, and very affordable. Hiring a driver is absolutely the way to visit the wineries in MDZ.

Hi, I have been reading through this thread and there is a lot of great information. I am planning to be in Mendoza for a couple days and want to spend one day touring wineries. From what I have read so far it looks like 3 or 4 wineries is what is best to attempt in one day.

So, which ones so I include? It looks like:

Bodega Benegas
Rutini La Rural
O. Fournier
Achaval Ferrer
La Azul
Familia Zuccardi
Bodegas Lopez

are the most recommended. What are the most practical to combine into 1 day?

Thanks for the help!