Siempre Viajando

A place not to be missed in Mendoza is the Zuccardi winery, about 30 km from town a couple of km off the road to San Luis (it's signed, and taxis are cheap...). Excellent food there, good parrillada, good service, great wines and the prices aren't bad...try it, you won't regret it!

Gaucho100K

Siempre Viajando-- I havent been to Zuccardi for a while now... do they have a walk in restaurant or do you have to make reservations? Zuccardi makes great wines... and if you can, try the Alma 4 Sparkling wines made by Sebastian Zuccardi, they are very very good. Plus, for lovers of sparkling red wine, make sure to try the sparkling Bonarda and Syrah.

prh

Two questions:

1) Does anyone have recommendations for a private day long tour of the better vineyards near Mendoza, and by near, I'm willing to go an hour or two away?

2) I'm considering hiring a driver to take me from Mendoza to SCL at the end of my stay -- yes, I know it's about 6 hours, but then my flight doesn't leave SCL until 11 pm. Is that feasible? If so, any recommendations for a driver or a company that supplies drivers?

Gaucho100K

Hello prh--

Im afraid I cant refer you to a guide, but I can tell you which bodegas I think you should consider visiting. Before I list names, please be aware that distances are considerable... so if you want to cover more bodegas then you may have to settle with visiting only those that are closer to the city. There are very interesting producers in the Valle de Uco region.... but if you go there you will probably not have time to visit more that 2 producers.

Some bodegas for you to consider visiting:
- Benegas
- La Rural Rutini Wines
- Trapiche
- Escorihuela Gascon
- Terrazas de los Andes

Producers that are further away:
- Bodega La Azul
- Reina Andeluna / Andeluna Cellars
- MonteViejo / Clos de los Siete
- Achaval Ferrer

Gaucho100K

Im sad to report that Im taking La Bourgogne Mendoza off my list of top spots to dine in Mendoza. My last visit there was a disaster... just about everything went wrong.

Got there at 8pm (exact time of my reservation) and my table was not ready - please note the restaurant was empty at the time. Service took for ever, they didnt have a proper bar for before dinner drinks - imagine no JW Black label .... they then take 40 minutes to take our order.... food takes for ever. Wine list is a fluke, they have 4 chardonnays listed but none of them in stock. We order the two best sparkling wines on the list, both come out at the wrong temperature...

Eastbay1K

As for 1) - you might just want to hire a private driver for the day, and you can come and go as you please, and pick the types of wineries / tours that suit your tastes. I hired one for an afternoon (which was plenty for me) - I don't think I have the driver's card, but if I scrounge it up, I'll post it.

As for 2) - if you want to travel over land, you'd best use one of the bus services. I can't imagine any driver charging less than double or triple what an airline flight would cost, as the cost of fuel is quite high, the driver will have a lot of "down time" (one way with no fare, up to an hour each way in customs), and I don't know if there are any tolls on the highway that crosses through Santiago on the way to the airport - if so, and you don't have a car with electronic tags, you are asking for trouble. Also, note that in the early evening hours, the exit passport control lines can get quite lengthy @ SCL (followed by very short security lines) - flying from MDZ will eliminate this.

nor4

SanDiego1K did the Mendoza-Santiago bus trip and wrote it up the SAm forum. It included some good infor on which bus line to use. She says the bus trip is pleasant and worth the journey. I don't have the link, but do a search on SanDiego1K and it should pop up.

georgiastrick

in may i will go from santiago to mendoza and would like to hire a professional driver to take us over the andes. do you know any professional i can contact? i am also interested in renting my own car in mendoza and driving it to buenos aires to drop off. i have found that the drop off fee is exorbitantly expensive. do you know of any local rental agencies i could use? national, avis, hertz are all about the same cost.

Gaucho100K

Car rentals in Argentina are expensive.... and drop off fees will kill you. Im not sure there is a low cost way to do this. IMO, I would forget driving by myself (in Mendoza signage is not very good).

georgiastrick

does anyone know about the argentino hotel in mendoza?

Siempre Viajando

Sorry for the delay in responding...haven't signed on for a while. We went at high season (late Jan / early Feb) and walked in without waiting very long...helped that we showed up early for lunch. But I think we got lucky...if I recall correctly they take reservations and I'd definitely recommend it especially for high season visits.

Haven't tried their sparkling wines but I love their "Q" series wines and the Santa Julia reds are usually pretty reliable, and they're now available in Canada where I live.

Siempre Viajando

Try José Luis Cáceres in Santiago. His cell phone is +56(9)9251-1494. He runs a lot of drivers in Santiago and is pretty much locked to one client, but he might do some stuff on the side as well. He's a can-do guy and very honest. As far as I know he speaks no English, so I hope your Spanish is up to it. Tell him "Don Derek" referred you.

georgiastrick

mucho gracias, i'll give him a call and cross my fingers that i can get my request across!

Gaucho100K

Try to see if you can find a bottle of Zeta, its their top of the line label, a blend of Malbec and Tempranillo. The Sparkling line Alma 4 is being relaunched this month, and they have increased production so its possible that it will begin to be exported to selected markets by the end of the year.

Siempre Viajando

Next time I'm in Mendoza I'll try it, thanks for the recommendation. BTW what's it cost? The Q was up around US$20 last time I bought, which is pretty pricey for Mendoza, I suppose the Zeta is even more...?