Mendoza Wine Tour, Mendoza

No visit to Mendoza is complete without discovering its rich wine culture. This experience includes visits to the most famous wine destinations around Mendoza, from the area around the town of Luján de Cuyo to the fertile soil of the Maipú Valley. It's a fun-filled excursion that mixes equal parts wine history with wine tasting.

The tour reveals insight into how Mendoza rose over the centuries to become Argentina's premier wine-making region. It began with Jesuit priests and European immigrants who settled here and combined their wine-making knowledge with the irrigation techniques (canals and ditches) handed down from the Huarpe indigenous people. It was through these methods that the Huarpes transformed a vast desert into a productive hotbed of viniculture.

The tour includes visits to two bodegas (wineries) that still rely on traditional irrigation methods in the winemaking process. At these bodegas, there are presentations detailing vinification methods, processing, bottling, and even the labeling of wines. Of course, this is all accompanied by a tasting of the different varietals the bodegas offer. Also on the menu are samplings of locally grown olives, artisanal cheeses, and even Malbec grapes right off the vine!