2020 Argentina - BA, Iguazu, & Mendoza wine region - ONE LIFE, MANY TRAVELs / Travel Blog

2020 Argentina – BA, Iguazu, & Mendoza wine region

November 15, 2023

Having first tried Catena Zapata’s Malbec years ago, around 2012 timeframes, a trip to Argentina’s wine region and Patagonia had been percolating somewhere within the inner sanctum of my brain.

Convincing my two friends took a couple of years. It takes a while for the thought to germinate – it took a lot of nurturing, and watering – using Catena’s Malbec.

And voila!; the eureka moment came around mid-2019 – the group (of 5 couples) intimated their interest in such a trip, though with one caveat, it could not be just to the wine region. Thus, we added Iguazu falls to our itinerary – to visit both sides, in Argentina and Brazil. Alas, no Patagonia, it had to be deferred to another time given the constraints of available vacation time.

I worked with Flavia at Argentina Wine Tours (AWT) – selected them from a handful of other tour operators after careful look at reviews on TripAdvisor and on the Web. In order to keep the trip cost lower we opted to have different guides from the same tour operator at each of the three destinations that we would be visiting. It worked out very well – each guide was local to the area and knew their stuff, and flutent in English. I would highly recommend Flavia and AWT.

Our 10 day trip started in early February (2020), and ended on February 20th. At around this time the word Covid was slowly showing up in the news, but like SARS, we gave it little thought – it was something that was happening far away from us, and so why worry. So much for that!!

We arrived in Buenos Aires (BA), and were met by the tour company, AWT, and whisked away to our hotel, Casa Sur Palermo. It was located in a very nice, hip, residential location, in close proximity to bars and restaurants. Could not ask for anything better!

We spent couple of days sightseeing in BA, and on the second day had dinner at a traditional Tango show. Had a great time. Could have done with another day or two – will leave that for another trip.

On the morning of the 4th day took a flight to Iguazu Falls. In Iguazu we were met by another guide from AWT. The hotel in Iguazu was very nice as well – Loi Suites Iguazu. We spent a day and half in Iguazu, seeing the falls from both the Argentianian and Brazilian sides. One gets the best view of the falls from the Brazilian side, looking across at the Argentinian side. The panoramic view is breathtaking. On the Argentinian side, the falls is located inside the Iguazu National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage site. We got to see the falls close up by hiking through the National Park, and again during the boat ride.

Our last port of call was Mendoza, to visit the wine region and Mt. Aconcagua. Stayed at the Sheraton in Mendoza – very nice. We did a city tour on the afternoon that we arrived.

Next day visited three really good wineries, Pulenta Estate, Salentin, and Andeluna. The group was in a very happy mood after the first winery, and it just got better and better. On hindsight we overdid it by asking to do three 3 wine tastings in a day. On day 8, took a road trip to visit Mt. Aconcagua.

On day 9, again had three wineries on the itinerary – we had signed up for a tasting at Catena Zapata (the maker of the best Malbec, in my opinion), however at the last minute they had cancelled the tasting, and we ended up at Benegas. It was good but not comparable to Catena – just my opinion. Next winery was Cruzat, and ending with wine tasting and lunch at Melipal. I had high hopes about Melipal but was disappointed by their wines and their very slow service – they are owned by Achaval Ferrer, who makes very good Malbecs.

Next day we flew back to BA, had a really good meal at a restaurant near the same hotel we stayed on day 1.

Everyone had a really good time. Flavia and her team of guides at AWT provided excellent history and background and took excellent care of us from the beginning to the end.