Mendoza Food and Wine

[foodiechic]

Love Mendoza, like to get suggestions of the top three wineries to visit and the rarest as well as the three top restaurant suggestions.

[mhdousa]

Don't know about "rarest", but we had amazing visits to Bodegas Benegas and Andeluna. Both had beautiful grounds and fantastic wines. Achaval Ferrer was decent - wine was good, tour guide was quite nervous and didn't give a great tour. Ruca Malen had a fantastic lunch. Salentein was big and impersonal and the lunch wasn't very good.

[The Food Buster]

Hey foodiechic,

I'm an absolute Argentine wine nut, having tasted and reviewed over 100 wines and visited about fifteen wineries.

For the best winery to visit, I'd definitely recommend Achaval Ferrer. He makes probably the most "exclusive" and well-known Malbecs in the country (in fact, 3 of his 5 wines are icon-level Malbecs), but the reason to go isn't really for the tasting, since sometimes you might be stuck with a barrel tasting of a wine that isn't even finished yet. Instead, it's probably the most interesting and tourist friendly, with guides who give a ton of detail.

My second winery recommendation would be Bressia, by far my favorite winery in the country. Every single one of its wines is amazing, and the winnery produces my favorite Argentine wine of all time, the Conjuro 2005. I never had the chance to visit the winery itself, but I've never had a bad experience with Bressia, and it just came out with its Ultima Hoja, the second most expensive Argentine wine ever, with only 800 bottles produced. If you want "the" wine in Argentina, that's probably the rarest and best to get.

Finally, I'd recommend Familia Zuccardi, which is kind of off-the-beaten-track, but which is one of the biggest producers of Argentine wine in the country and probably has the most accessible wine tasting. You can even have a whole meal as an optional extra.

In terms of restaurant, you MUST visit La Bourgogne, probably the best restaurant in the whole country. It's located right in the Vistalba winery, which doesn't have a great tasting but is an amazing place to dine at. I'd also recommend O'Fournier, which has probably the most elaborate wine pairing, pairing all levels of its wines with five different courses.

Hope that helps!

[Corinna]

Not unknown, but we had an excellent tour at Bodegas Norton followed by a lovely picada in the cellar. I would recommend it!

[godito]

Man, am I junping late into this discussion.... however, I do have a few recommendations for Mendoza. I have no winery suggestions, as I have not been in many. However, I can recommend three restaurants

The first on my list is Restaurante 1884. Francis Mallmann, the chef, is an iconic argentinian cook, and this place, inside Escorihuela winery is gorgeous!

I'd also recommend Cavas Wine Lodge for a visit. If you have the money and make the reservations with time, you can also stay at one of their few cabins. The food is great, and the ambience couldn't be better.

Finally, La Marchigiana is a traditional argentinian-italian restaurant. Very rustic, and not at all spectacular. But I did like the pasta there.

Sorry I didn't see this post earlier, and I hope it helps somebody!