Top Mendoza Wineries

In general, it’s best to make advance appointments for tours and tastings in Mendoza. I recommend visiting no more than three wineries per day: one late in the morning, one for lunch and one in the afternoon.

Viña Cobos

During his time working for Nicolás Catena, Paul Hobbs completely changed the winemaking culture of Mendoza, and, in 1997, he founded his own winery. In the sleek tasting room of this contemporary glass-and-concrete building, we sampled some of the most beautifully crafted wines of our entire trip. The Viña Cobos Bramare line focuses on single-vineyard Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Tasting them together emphasized not only the difference that terroir can make, but also the focus and elegance of which Mendozan wines are capable.

Achaval-Ferrer

This winery’s 16-year-old brick building doesn’t look like much, but some of Mendoza’s most deliciously complex wines are crafted inside. The owners attempt to bring out the qualities of the vineyards’ soils as much as the fruitiness of the grapes. Sitting in a stylish dining room, we tried a Bordeaux-style blend and three single-vineyard Malbecs. The wines exhibited lusciously ripe fruit as well as appealing earthier notes such as tobacco and iron, integrating them with real finesse.

Terrazas de los Andes

We enjoyed a private tour of this historic winery set amid gardens and mature cypresses. Owned by LVMH, Terrazas de los Andes makes both inexpensive and fine wines. The engaging Carolina led us through tastings of cheerful and fruity examples of Torrontés, Chardonnay and Malbec, as well as a very unusual and well-balanced late-harvest Petit Manseng. But it was the 2010 Cheval des Andes that gave me chills. Huge but tightly controlled, this wine tasted far more costly than its $66 price tag.

Clos de los Siete

Seven French partners, led by the famed flying winemaker Michel Rolland, founded this 2,100-acre complex in 1998. We visited two of seven monumental bodegas on the property. DiamAndes could double as the enclave of a James Bond villain, with a massive steel diamond-shaped sculpture pointing down to a sepulchral rotunda, which houses large-format bottles of reserve wines. The one rosé and three red wines we tried each had deep fruit, fine structure and balancing freshness. I also insisted on seeing Rolland’s unusual bodega, a simple gray box not geared for tourism, notable for its rows of cubic concrete tanks and ripe, powerful wines.